ORGL 600: Foundations of Leadership

Professor: Dr. Aaron McMurray and Dr. Michael Carey

Taken: Spring 2022

Description: The most important skills that students in this class will develop are primarily internal ones, i.e., perception, insight into causes of problems among individuals within group contexts, and understanding into the dynamics necessary for long-term solutions to problems. After participation in this course, students should have a greater ability for self-reflection, a more integrated philosophy of leadership, and a deeper understanding of how they and others in organizational contexts create meaning. Implied in the above competencies is a deeper awareness of barriers to their attainment: dysfunctional thinking, rigidity in leadership approaches, and segmentalism in organizational decision-making and behavior

Reflection: Foundations of Leadership was my first class in the program, my first time back in a classroom in over 20 years. I was immediately challenged by a book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” (2000) by Paulo Freire. This was the moment I learned that I would not walk away from this program with a checklist of how to be a great leader. In order to be a great leader I needed to look inside myself and challenge the norms I’ve been living towards. I find it much easier to look outwards than to sit and introspect. I would need to be vulnerable to get the most from this program. As scared as I was, I was hooked. I needed to challenge my current definitions of what a leader is. Instead of playing a part of leadership, I needed to lead authentically.