Harvard University - Kennedy School

I am still in Boston. This week doing a one week course on "Leadership for the 21Century: Chaos, Conflict and Courage" at Harvard ....so this baby is going to be highly educated before it is even born! The 68 'executives' are from 19 countries and are an impressive group.

What is the course about?

"In our daily lives, we all operate from a certain set of assumptions by which we make decisions. Whether we know it or not, we are often guided by our gut. Leadership for the 21st Century: Chaos, Conflict and Courage is an executive education program offered at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government that delves into why we lead the way we do. The program offers a personal, stimulating, and challenging week that invites you to learn how to act courageously and skillfully when exercising leadership.

The program is different from the average leadership development programs that focus primarily on building a distinct set of skills and tactics. Leadership for the 21st Century does more by pushing you to reflect on your deepest assumptions and most strongly held values, and encouraging you to consider how your values and beliefs may have limited you in the past. It challenges you to look beyond formulating quick technical solutions that act as band-aids to deeper organizational challenges, and instead asks you to examine yourself and the competing commitments and loyalties in your organization or community.

The five-day course requires participants to be actively engaged on several levels - in the classroom, in small groups, and in individual reflection. You will discuss issues like creating and claiming value, understanding the relationship between leadership and authority, exercising influence, and managing the individual and institutional dynamics of change. We will explore a wide range of leadership strategies and practice new ways of exercising leadership, whether in a position of authority or just one member of a group. We will confront the dangers and risks associated with exercising leadership – the chaos and conflict – and explore how you can build up your capacity to navigate unpredictable waters.

Where is your leadership taking you? Do you have the courage and skills to exercise leadership for the purposes you care about most? Leadership for the 21st Century is a provocative seminar that introduces a set of conceptual frameworks and a unique teaching method designed to challenge your fundamental assumptions about how you can courageously and effectively exercise leadership and authority during hard times."