Learning Outcomes

TopLeadership is dangerous. It requires surfacing tough issues and challenging people to change for the hope of improvement. The risks include generating friction with those who would rather maintain the status quo. This course is designed to develop your practical skills at managing the risks to making real progress.

You will learn to diagnose leadership challenges, to exercise effective leadership even in risky situations, and to avoid unnecessary penalties for your efforts. You will examine materials from psychology, political science, philosophy, business management, and, most importantly, adaptive leadership. These will be communicated partly through traditional methods: lectures, readings, and film. However, this is primarily a pragmatic course, so significant emphasis will be placed on:

Your past personal leadership challenges – to see what insights they can provide;
Your personal ambitions and drive – to identify strengths and areas of vulnerability;
The current interpersonal dynamics in the class – to illuminate tendencies you have that influence your ability to exercise effective leadership in real world settings.

For more information, see the syllabus in the IVLE workbin.

Prerequisites

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Syllabus

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PP5209: EXERCISING LEADERSHIP (“XL”)
COURSE OVERVIEW AND SYLLABUS
ACADEMIC YEAR 2015-16
January 10^th, 2016

Course Application

If this course is oversubscribed, preference will be given to students who have completed this brief application
https://goo.gl/ifp5OU [1]

TEACHING TEAM

Instructor	Teaching Assistant
Jonathan Marshall, PhD	Nihit Goyal
jonathan@marshallconsulting.com	nihit@u.nus.edu

INTRODUCTION

Leadership is dangerous. It requires surfacing tough issues and challenging people to change for the hope of improvement. The risks include generating friction with those who would rather maintain the status quo. This course is designed to develop your practical skills at managing the risks to making real progress.
You will learn to diagnose leadership challenges, to exercise effective leadership even in risky situations, and to avoid unnecessary penalties for your efforts. You will examine materials from psychology, political science, philosophy, business management, and, most importantly, adaptive leadership. These will be communicated partly through traditional methods: lectures, readings, and film. However, this is primarily a pragmatic course, so significant emphasis will be placed on:

Your past leadership challenges – to see what insights they can provide;
Your ambitions and drive – to identify strengths and areas of vulnerability;
The current interpersonal dynamics in the class – to illuminate tendencies you have that influence your ability to exercise effective leadership in real world settings.

Caveat

In 2010, three of the most acclaimed leadership instructors in the world said this course could not be successfully taught in Asia. I am mindful of their concern and, hence, I am keen to work with students who are willing to make a sincere, personal commitment to improve their leadership skills. They will need to overcome challenges inherent in the unusual teaching method of this course so that we, together, create a valuable and enriching experience. It is perhaps worth mentioning that while I have found each run of this course very challenging, it has received positive reviews. Thanks to the quality of each year’s cohort, it has become very clear this course can be taught effectively in Asia.

CLASS TIMINGS

Shopping Week

The Shopping Week class will be held during 2.00-2.25 pm on Monday, January 11^th, at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, MM 3-5.

Plenary (regular class)

Unless otherwise stated, classes will start at 2.00 pm in MM 3-4 and will end at 5.30 pm.
To accommodate the length of our classes, our semester will end early: April 4^th.
There will be no class during the week of Chinese New Year, February 8^th.
Two required plenary sessions will be held outside the regular class period:

Wednesday March 2^nd, 6.40 pm – 11.00 pm. We will meet at the main entrance of OTH. Make sure to have had dinner first. Preferred attired is formal or business informal. Smart casual is also okay. Bring an extra layer if you get cold easily. Transportation to the off-campus venue will be provided; no transportation has been arranged back. We will be in a convenient location for taxis and the MRT.
March 14^th, 7.00 pm – 10.30 pm. We meet at the Conference Room next to the lobby of OTH.

Small Group Meetings

Between January 26^th and March 24^th, you will have five case-consultation meetings with your Small Group. Depending on the number of people in your group, you may have the option to have a sixth case-consultation.
These meetings will be on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays, and they will last for 1½ hours. There will be no meeting during Recess Week.
Meetings should be in a space where confidential information may be discussed without any interruption.

Films

Two films are required viewing. You may view them at the screened times or on your own. The films are Black Harvest and As It Is In Heaven. Prepare an adaptive analysis of Black Harvest for the class following the listed screening date. As It Is In Heaven will be the topic for one of your written .

MEETING DETAILS

Plenary Meetings

As this course is highly interactive:

Plenary and small group meetings are mandatory.
Electronic devices such as phones, tablets, and laptops are prohibited in plenary. Writing notes, e.g., with a pen is encouraged.
No audio or visual recordings may be made in either plenary or small group meetings without the instructor’s consent.
Do not leave class without the instructor’s consent.
All participants are expected to agree explicitly to upholding NUS’s code of conduct and to respect the confidentiality of their peers.

I encourage lively, energetic participation in class. That may include the expression of strongly felt disagreement. In order to provide that please be careful to maintain confidences appropriately, avoid personal attacks, and avoid plagiarizing. Breaches in any may meet with a response from the LKYSPP Disciplinary Committee.

Small Group Meetings

Purpose

The purpose of these meetings is to help you:

Apply lessons from the class to your experience
Explore these lessons with group members in order to investigate effective ways of exercising leadership
Analyze leadership and group dynamics both outside and inside your Small Group.

Roles

There will be three formal roles in the meetings:

The Designated Authority – who will chair the meeting
The Case Presenter – who will present a case
The Consultants – the other members of the group

Your small group will establish the roles and rotate them weekly.

Preparation

Two days before the meeting, the Case Presenter will email a 300-500-word description of her/his personal leadership challenge to be discussed. The challenge will either focus on a leadership failure that still feels unsettled or a current leadership challenge.

Guiding Documents

Documents regarding the small group roles and how to run small group meetings are available in the IVLE folder Small Group Information. Be sure to go over these before your first meeting.

Reflections Papers

The questions for your reflection papers will be available in IVLE the week your paper is due.

Optional Office Hours & Coaching

Office Hours

Clarification on administrative issues or class concepts should be brought up in plenary or discussed with your peers before you approach a member of the teaching team for a private meeting.

Coaching

You are welcome to meet with me, Jonathan, for optional individual coaching. The purpose of coaching is to explore personal leadership challenges in more depth and to develop a strategy for further development. If you choose to take this opportunity, come to sessions with questions and your thoughts on those issues. Due to rooming issues, I may be more available at my office on Portsdown Road than on campus. Do send me an email with times you are available to meet and the topic you would like to work on.

REQUIREMENTS

Assessments

The assessments for the grade in this module are given below.

Assessments	Points
Written: Reflection papers (five submissions required; an extra submission may be optional)	*
Written: Adaptive analysis of As it is in Heaven (film)	*
Participation: Plenary participation (assessment by peers)	*
Participation: Plenary participation (assessment by instructor)	*
Participation: Small Group participation (assessment by peers)	*
Presentation: Small Group presentation of a leadership case (assessment by peers)	*
Presentation: Small Group presentation of a leadership case (assessment by instructor)	*

Extensions

Due to the significant amount of grading for this course, no extensions will be given for submissions. Incomplete or late submissions of coursework will receive no credit unless accompanied with documentation of a relevant medical or family emergency.

Details for Submitting Papers

Please submit your written work as a Microsoft Word document and upload it into the course Workbin, on IVLE, with your name, the title of the document, and the total word count (including footnotes but not end notes) on the front page. Each page of the document should have a page number.

Reflection Papers

These papers encourage disciplined reflection on your experience of your Small Group. You will analyze the dynamics in your group and give your own impressions of what occurs. The best papers typically apply concepts from the course material to gain more insight into the behaviors of the group’s members. Questions will be distributed to you every week, and they will guide you in your reflections.
For groups of more than five people, you have the option of handing in a sixth reflection paper. Your overall grade for reflection papers will include this sixth paper if this paper is above your average so far. There is no option to hand in a sixth reflection paper if your Small Group has fewer than six people.

Adaptive Analysis

Write a structured analysis of the film As It Is In Heaven. Excellent papers tend to use concepts from our course to analyze what occurred specifically, including but not limited to the following:

Underlying dynamics
Key factors that contributed to the successes and failures
Recommendations on how a better outcome could have been achieved

They do not focus on describing what occurred. While some description may be helpful at times, you may assume your readers have seen the films. Description can take up unnecessary space.
Grades will be based on the application of class concepts, readings (required and optional) and depth of thought. Forced use of course materials will not improve your grade. While there is no word limit, the recommended length is 750 words.

Participation

One of the most important skills of a leader is the ability to work with other people. To that end, this course has been designed for you to build upon and integrate your ideas, opinions, and experiences together.

Plenary Class Participation: Both the instructor and your peers will assess your contribution to class discussion. Scores will be based on how well you have increased learning for the class. That will in part be determined by your ability to respond to impromptu questions about the readings.

Small Group Participation: Small Group members will each give confidential evaluations of your participation. Their scores will reflect attendance, preparation, case-study presentation and, most importantly, helpfulness to the learning of the Small Group.

Presentations

Presentation skills are a tremendous asset when exercising leadership and preparing for your presentation will provide you with the opportunity to work on a task while practicing the analytical skills you have learned in XL. The topic of your presentation will be the dynamics of own small group. Your group will have a total of 20 minutes for its presentation; that includes time for questions and answers. No time extension will be available.

APPENDIX A: COURSE READINGS

Readings for this course are in four different locations.

Our primary text, Leadership on the Line, is available at the bookstore and also online, e.g., for eReaders.
Some chapters from Leadership Without Easy Answer are required reading. The book is also available in the library under CL RBR (Loans Desk 1) #HM141 Hei.
As a registered student of the class, you will receive a link to our folder at Harvard Business Publishing after Class #1. Those articles are marked with an “(H)”.

The legend for readings is:

*	Required
§	Recommended
°	Also interesting, lah

SHOPPING WEEK (11^TH JANUARY 2016, 2.00-2:25 PM)

Reading

§Last year’s alumni advice to prospective students in this course
§Heifetz & Linsky, A Survival Guide for Leaders (Particularly useful if you are uncertain if you would like to take this course. The concepts will be rigorously covered in the course. If you find the article too dense and brief, you are not alone.)

Viewing

§Exercising Leadership: A course for me? (This video will be show in the Shopping Week class. It was made by the pioneer XL batch. While they were on a bit of a high when this video was made, it gives a sense of this course.)

CLASS #1: ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP I (18^TH JANUARY 2016, 2.00-5.30 PM)

Reading

*Heifetz & Linsky, Leadership on the Line, Introduction, Ch. 1, Ch. 2
*Gladwell, Malcolm, Blink, Introduction & Ch. 1

Viewing

*Amy Cuddy: Your body language shapes who you are

CLASS #2: ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP II (25^TH JANUARY 2016, 2.00-5.30 PM)

Reading

*Marshall, Jonathan A Dangerous Succession (for class discussion)
*Heifetz & Linsky, Leadership on the Line, Ch. 3.
§Heifetz, Ronald, Leadership without Easy Answers, Ch. 4
§Heifetz, Linsky & Grashow, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership, Ch. 5 (H)

CLASS #3: GROUP DYNAMICS I (1^st FEBRUARY 2016, 2.00-5.30 PM)

Reading

*Argyris, Chris, "Teaching Smart People How to Learn," Harvard Business Review (H)
*Benne & Sheats, “Group Roles Identifying Both Positive and Negative Group Behavior Roles,” mindtools.com
*Linsky, Marty, Case: “A Duty to Leak?” (H)
§Battilana & Casiaro, “The Network Secrets of Great Change Agents,” Harvard Business Review (H)
§Heifetz, Ronald, Leadership without Easy Answers, Ch. 5
§Study: Power without status can lead to rudeness, even abuse

Viewing

§Sinek, Simon, Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe

FILM #1: BLACK HARVEST (10^TH FEBRUARY 2016, 7.00-9.00 PM)

No reading

CLASS #4: GROUP DYNAMICS II & DISCUSSION OF FILM #1 (15^TH FEBRUARY 2015, 2.00-5.30 PM)

Discussion on Black Harvest
Reading

*Heifetz & Linsky, Leadership on the Line, Ch. 4
*Greenberg & Baron, “Group Dynamics and Work Teams”, Behavior in Organizations
°Farkas, Maria, “A Note on Team Process”, Harvard Business Publishing (H) (This is a clever article but a hard read.)
°Ashraf, Nava, “Rx: Human Nature”, Harvard Business Publishing (H)

RECESS WEEK – NO CLASS (22^ND FEBRUARY 2016, 2.00-5.30 PM)

CLASS #5: PURPOSE, PASSION, & DIRECTION (29^TH MARCH 2016, 2.00-6.00 PM)

Reading

*Heifetz & Linsky, Leadership on the Line, Ch. 5 & 6
§Heifetz, Ronald, Leadership without Easy Answers, Ch. 8

Viewing:

*Brené Brown: “The power of vulnerability” (20 minutes), June 2010

CLASS #6: AUTHENTIC PRESENCE I : LISTENING (2^ND MARCH 2016, 6.30-10.00 PM)

Reading

*Heifetz, Linsky & Grashow, “Inspire People”, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership, Ch. 21 (H)
*Herminia Ibarra, The Authenticity Paradox, Harvard Business Review
*Koehn, Nancy, The Fallacy of Perfection, Harvard Business Review (H)
§Rogers and Roethlisberger, "Barriers and Gateway to Communication," Harvard Business Review: On Human Relations. (H)

Viewing

§Obama, Barak, “Don't Tell Me Words Don't Matter” (10 minutes), February 2008

CLASS #7: ORCHESTRATING CONFLICT, ACCEPTING FAILURE AND KNOWING WHEN TO APOLOGIZE (7^TH MARCH 2016, 2.00-5.30 PM)

Reading

* Barsh and Lavoie, McKinsey Report: Lead at your Best, McKinsey
*Kellerman, Barbara, “When Should a Leader Apologize,” Harvard Business Review (H)
* Maignan Wilkins, Muriel, Signs That You Lack Emotional Intelligence, Harvard Business Review
*Seligman, Martin, “Building Resilience,” Harvard Business Review (H)

Viewing

*Spanx Founder Sara Blakely: “I Redefined Failure”
§Obama, Barrack, Gun control initiatives at the White House
°Sorry, Kevin Rudd's Apology to "The stolen Generation"

FILM #2: WATCHING MOVIE: AS IT IS IN HEAVEN (9^TH MARCH 2016, 7.00-9:30 PM)

No reading

CLASS #8: AUTHENTIC PRESENCE II: INSPIRATION (14^TH MARCH 2016, 6.30-10 PM)

Reading

*Heifetz & Linsky, Leadership on the Line, Ch. 8 & 9
*Mihaly, Csikszentmihalyi, "The Flow Guy", pursuit-of-happiness.org
§“I have a dream,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered 28 August 1963

Viewing

*J. K. Rowling Harvard Commencement Speech (21 minutes), September 2008
§Zander, Ben, The Transformative Power of Classical Music (21 minutes), February, 2008

CLASS #9: MANAGING YOURSELF & YOUR HUNGERS (21^TH MARCH 2015, 2.00-5.30 PM)

Reading

*Heifetz & Linsky, Leadership on the Line, Ch. 7 & 10
§Drucker, Peter, “Managing Oneself,” Harvard Business Review (H)
§Kaplan, Robert, “What to ask the person in the mirror,” Harvard Business Review (H)
°Corkindale, Gill, “The price of (not) speaking truth to power,” HBR Blog Network

CLASS #10: SMALL GROUP PRESENTATIONS & SACRED HEART (28^TH MARCH 2015, 2.00-5.30 PM)

Reading

*Heifetz & Linsky, Leadership on the Line, Ch. 11
*Heifetz, Linsky & Grashow, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership, Ch. 23. (H)
§Vicki LaFarge, "Termination in Groups," from McCollom and Gillette, Groups in Context

Viewing

§Conan O'Brien, Dartmouth's 2011 Commencement Address (start at 16 minutes 40 seconds if you want to skip the preamble)

CLASS #11: GUEST SPEAKER (4^TH APRIL 2015, 2.00-5.00 PM)

Guest Lecturer: Mr. George Yeo
Reading

APPENDIX B: CHECKLIST FOR SUBMISSIONS

	Item	Due
	Application for XL (link [2])	16 Jan
☐	Small Group Composition (link [3]) Available from 18^th January. To be complete by only one person in your SG.	23 Jan
☐	Reflection paper 1	29 Jan
☐	Reflection paper 2	5 Feb
☐	Reflection paper 3	19 Feb
☐	Reflection paper 4	4 Mar
☐	Reflection paper 5	11 Mar
☐	Reflection paper 6 (optional)	18 Mar
☐	Adaptive analysis of As It Is In Heaven	21 Mar
☐	Peer evaluation (link [4]) Available from March 28^th	4 Apr
☐	Course evaluation (link [5]) Available from April 4^th	11 Apr

Note: Unless otherwise stated, submissions are due by 2.00 AM. There is a 6-hour grace period. Submissions later than 8.00 AM will be penalized.

[1] https://nusbschool.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1z8vTWqUxVF9SsZ

[2] https://nusbschool.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1z8vTWqUxVF9SsZ

[3] http://nusbschool.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_cN57337wlIUl3jD

[4] http://nusbschool.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_8H3q8LTXbH9IiFv

[5] http://nusbschool.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_5ihAIHR9gDduaIl

Preclusions

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Workload

Top3-0-1-2-4

Workload Components : A-B-C-D-E
A: no. of lecture hours per week
B: no. of tutorial hours per week
C: no. of lab hours per week
D: no. of hours for projects, assignments, fieldwork etc per week
E: no. of hours for preparatory work by a student per week

TEACHING TEAM

Caveat

Shopping Week

Plenary (regular class)

Small Group Meetings

Films

MEETING DETAILS

Plenary Meetings

Small Group Meetings

Purpose

Roles

Preparation

Guiding Documents

Reflections Papers

Optional Office Hours & Coaching

Office Hours

Coaching

Assessments

Extensions

Details for Submitting Papers

Reflection Papers

Adaptive Analysis

Participation

Presentations

SHOPPING WEEK (11TH JANUARY 2016, 2.00-2:25 PM)

CLASS #1: ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP I (18TH JANUARY 2016, 2.00-5.30 PM)

CLASS #2: ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP II (25TH JANUARY 2016, 2.00-5.30 PM)

CLASS #3: GROUP DYNAMICS I (1st FEBRUARY 2016, 2.00-5.30 PM)

FILM #1: BLACK HARVEST (10TH FEBRUARY 2016, 7.00-9.00 PM)

CLASS #4: GROUP DYNAMICS II & DISCUSSION OF FILM #1 (15TH FEBRUARY 2015, 2.00-5.30 PM)

RECESS WEEK – NO CLASS (22ND FEBRUARY 2016, 2.00-5.30 PM)

CLASS #5: PURPOSE, PASSION, & DIRECTION (29TH MARCH 2016, 2.00-6.00 PM)

CLASS #6: AUTHENTIC PRESENCE I : LISTENING (2ND MARCH 2016, 6.30-10.00 PM)

CLASS #7: ORCHESTRATING CONFLICT, ACCEPTING FAILURE AND KNOWING WHEN TO APOLOGIZE (7TH MARCH 2016, 2.00-5.30 PM)

FILM #2: WATCHING MOVIE: AS IT IS IN HEAVEN (9TH MARCH 2016, 7.00-9:30 PM)

CLASS #8: AUTHENTIC PRESENCE II: INSPIRATION (14TH MARCH 2016, 6.30-10 PM)

CLASS #9: MANAGING YOURSELF & YOUR HUNGERS (21TH MARCH 2015, 2.00-5.30 PM)

CLASS #10: SMALL GROUP PRESENTATIONS & SACRED HEART (28TH MARCH 2015, 2.00-5.30 PM)

CLASS #11: GUEST SPEAKER (4TH APRIL 2015, 2.00-5.00 PM)

APPENDIX B: CHECKLIST FOR SUBMISSIONS

SHOPPING WEEK (11^TH JANUARY 2016, 2.00-2:25 PM)

CLASS #1: ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP I (18^TH JANUARY 2016, 2.00-5.30 PM)

CLASS #2: ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP II (25^TH JANUARY 2016, 2.00-5.30 PM)

CLASS #3: GROUP DYNAMICS I (1^st FEBRUARY 2016, 2.00-5.30 PM)

FILM #1: BLACK HARVEST (10^TH FEBRUARY 2016, 7.00-9.00 PM)

CLASS #4: GROUP DYNAMICS II & DISCUSSION OF FILM #1 (15^TH FEBRUARY 2015, 2.00-5.30 PM)

RECESS WEEK – NO CLASS (22^ND FEBRUARY 2016, 2.00-5.30 PM)

CLASS #5: PURPOSE, PASSION, & DIRECTION (29^TH MARCH 2016, 2.00-6.00 PM)

CLASS #6: AUTHENTIC PRESENCE I : LISTENING (2^ND MARCH 2016, 6.30-10.00 PM)

CLASS #7: ORCHESTRATING CONFLICT, ACCEPTING FAILURE AND KNOWING WHEN TO APOLOGIZE (7^TH MARCH 2016, 2.00-5.30 PM)

FILM #2: WATCHING MOVIE: AS IT IS IN HEAVEN (9^TH MARCH 2016, 7.00-9:30 PM)

CLASS #8: AUTHENTIC PRESENCE II: INSPIRATION (14^TH MARCH 2016, 6.30-10 PM)

CLASS #9: MANAGING YOURSELF & YOUR HUNGERS (21^TH MARCH 2015, 2.00-5.30 PM)

CLASS #10: SMALL GROUP PRESENTATIONS & SACRED HEART (28^TH MARCH 2015, 2.00-5.30 PM)

CLASS #11: GUEST SPEAKER (4^TH APRIL 2015, 2.00-5.00 PM)