LEAF 513 Developing Leadership Skills
Faculty: Christina Coyle
Date: February 26, 2014
Books: Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice and Leadership, L. G. Bolman & T.E. Deal
Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence, D. Goleman, R . Boyatizis, A. McKee
Summary: This course explores challenges and possibilities for effective leadership at three ‘levels’ 3EO– the individual, the group or team, and the organization or system as a whole. Topics include systems thinking, coaching and feedback, organizational frameworks, conflict management, emotional intelligence, leadership styles and team development.
Most dogged eared book from the program.
One of the highlights of this class was the study of the four frames of organizational leadership. Bolman and Deal (2013) view organizations as machines (structural), families (Human Resource), jungles (political), and theater (symbolic); they suggest that effective leaders demonstrate the capacity to interpret and implement simultaneously the four frames of organizational leadership. Multi-frame thinking is often counter-intuitive; it requires artistry, skill, and the ability to see and understand the needs, roles, power, and symbols for a leaders or an organization to be successful.
An important part of this class is a team project to create “something good”, I am thrilled that both class projects continue to make an impact at Daemen. The work we completed on Project Care became the foundation for creating a new on-going partnership for service learning.
So what, Now what: Studying the four frames of organization was very interesting. I enjoyed the way the writing was assigned; it taught us how to build on our research and how to transition topics within a paper. Creating a routine of writing on a weekly basis is important; I would recommend having this class run right before the thesis course as it conditions you to write weekly.
Kelly explains her leadership collage to the class, My infinity loop is in the foreground.