Values-Based Leadership

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Each of us has experienced leaders and organizations who bring out our best selves, and those who leave us less than when we started. In this course, we will explore your experiences as a leader and as a follower, and connect these experiences to the current research on leadership and values in the workplace. Specifically, we will explore how research of the human brain (cognitive neuroscience) and research of human behavior in social and business settings (social psychology, behavioral economics, and management research) illuminates how leaders can effectively engage others beyond self-interest and thus create value for others (pro-social leadership). In other words, how can you lead others to think and act bigger than one's self and one's tribe? How can you uncover shared values where individuals benefit themselves, their colleagues, their organizations, and society? Our class includes developing the skills of empathy, motivating/influencing others, leading change, exploring our biases and blind spots, and creating psychologically safe workplaces that support diversity, inclusion, and belong.