Module overview
The overarching logic behind this module is that leadership grows from the inside out: That a leader first knows, understands, and is able to lead oneself before they can lead others. The module will focus directly on personal values, character, and integrity. To this end, the module will make explicit to students their personal leadership styles and habits, patterns of communications, biases in decision making, and reflective practice. The module aims to the highlight reflective thinking and reflective practice as a means to make you more aware of your own values, and to change patterned, habitual behaviours.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Learning Outcomes
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Critically appraise with supporting theory your emotional competency within the context of your leadership behaviours
- Recognise and critically evaluate your leadership strengths and development needs to maximise your potential as an effective leader
- Critically analyse the complexities of your leadership behaviours and demonstrate insight and theoretical understanding into why some leadership styles are used inappropriately
- Identify and critically analyse your personal values, character and integrity to demonstrate personal accountability
Syllabus
The syllabus is divided into four overlapping themes: Personal leadership, Communications, Decision Making, and Reflective Thinking and Practice. The overarching theme that informs the module is centered on values, character, and integrity.
- Theme One: Personal leadership.
- Values, character, and integrity
- Identifying personal preferences and leadership styles
- Understanding your professional identity and its relationship to your practice
- Making explicit biases and habits
- Research on narratives and personal histories of leaders
- Critical awareness of leadership challenges
- Connecting your practice with leadership theories
- Truth and self-delusion
- Theme two: Communications.
- What makes you want to be a leader?
- Authentic dialogues
- Influencing and persuading
- Emotion and communicating
- Theme Three: The Individual and the Decision
- What is the essence of a decision?
- Identifying your personal decision making style
- Uncovering personal biases in decision making
- Attention biases
- Availability
- Heuristics
- One-aspect focus
- Motivational biases
- Psycho-physical distortions
- Moral thinking, values and fairness
- Judgement
- Theme Four: Reflective Thinking and Reflective Practice
- Models of reflective thinking and reflective practice
- Reflective leadership
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
The conduct of the module is informed by the following principles:
- Learning may be relevant to your work environment
- You may be exposed to experiential learning
- As much as is practical, you may be involved in the planning and evaluation of your learning
- Teaching and learning may be problem-centred
In practice, this means that we will keep lectures to an absolute minimum, and will instead adhere to these principles through a deep, intentional emphasis on practice-based and activity-driven classroom time that both delineate and make real practical, personal leadership. We will give ample opportunity for participants to construct their leadership strengths, identify their weaknesses, and build plans to overcome their weaknesses and maximise their strengths.
Through facilitation rather than lecturing on personal leadership theories, we will engage in activities that uncover habits of leading. Then we will explore the theory and research behind these habits. The key is for students to discover their habits of thought, their biases, etc., and then to delineate theory that at once helps to explain them and leads students to a reflective manner of working.
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Independent Study | 220 |
| Teaching | 30 |
| Total study time | 250 |
Resources & Reading list
Textbooks
Northouse, P. (2013). Leadership Theory and Practice. London: Sage.
Assessment
Formative
This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.
Essay proposal
- Assessment Type: Formative
- Feedback: Face-to-face meeting in a small group within the classroom.
- Final Assessment: No
- Group Work: No
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Essay | 100% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Essay | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External