Developing Your Leadership Potential
Fall 2009
Mondays 7:15 to 10:00 p.m.
Professor Maria A. Quijada
Hilton 250
(310) 338-7409
mquijada@lmu.edu
Course Summary and Objectives:
Leadership is the ability to influence a group of people and rally them behind a goal. This
course is designed to provide you with the opportunity to develop and improve some of
the competencies that are fundamental to the practice of leadership, and especially to
provide you a place to reflect on your own leadership performance.
This course will be highly interactive and it depends on your openness and willingness to
step into new situations for it to be successful. Students will be asked to describe aspects
of leadership from their personal experiences and/or research, and to participate in
experiential exercises and role plays. A strong component of the course will be the
interactions that will take place in smaller teams where discussion and reflection will take
place.
In short, this is not a course for the passive student. The course will be tailored to your
needs and you need to be prepared to work hard and commit to the challenges that will be
presented. It seeks to engage you and to challenge you, your peers, and your instructor.
Required Text
The majority of the readings needed for the class are available through eres.
The Harvard Business School cases that we will use throughout the semester must be
purchased by you through their website http://hbsp.harvard.edu
Course Evaluation:
Grades will be determined by performance in class, on learning papers and the final
project. You are expected to come to class prepared, to turn your assignments on time
and to attend every class. There will be no exceptions to the dates scheduled for the
assignments.
Following is a breakdown of course requirements.
Requirement
Learning papers
Class participation
Leadership book
Movie Review
Final paper
Weight
35%
20%
15%
10%
20%
Due
As per syllabus
Random checks and
Dec 7th
Nov. 30th
Dec 7th
Please bring a copy of your deliverables to class. The assignments will be due at 7:15
p.m. when class begins. One learning paper over the semester may be rewritten and
submitted for reconsideration. Rewrites are due Nov. 30th.
You are encouraged to prepare questions to bring to class. This is an opportunity for you
to voice your thoughts and concerns about the readings and incorporate them into the
class discussion.
Learning papers:
The subject of the learning paper will be handed in class one week before it is due. The
assignments will deal with either the material discussed that day in class or with the
material that will be discussed the following week.
The papers are to be between 500 and 800 words. If you go over 800 words that material
will not be read. The grade of the paper will depend on the appropriate use of conceptual
materials, effective use of evidence, clear logical inferences and a coherent analysis.
Class participation:
Because of the course’s objectives, each student is required to be an active participant in
class discussions. The most important factor will be the quality of your contributions.
Obviously you must be both present and prepared in order to make high quality
comments. You will receive a letter grade for each class. It will be posted in Blackboard
following the class. The grade will depend on your level of participation, interest, and the
quality of your inputs. If you disagree with my assessment, you are welcome to challenge
my grade by writing me an email detailing why you believe you should have received a
higher or lower grade. If you miss class you will receive an F. The two lowest grades will
be eliminated before the final calculation.
Throughout the course you will also be expected to provide and receive feedback to and
from your classmates. These are part of the reflective component of the course. Your
comments will count as your class participation. You are expected to provide feedback in
a way that is respectful to your classmates. We will also dedicate part of a session to
understanding how to provide and receive effective feedback.
Leadership book:
You are expected to keep a journal where you document leadership moments you
encounter. These can be instances where you were directly involved or that you
witnessed good and bad. Analyze them: what did you do well, what could you have done
differently, what did you learned from it. We will discuss what areas are you looking to
improve and I encourage you to look at these events through the lens of the aspects you
want to improve on.
There is only one thing that I required all books to have and that is your personal
definition of leadership. Everything else is up to you.
I will review these randomly during the semester (always bring them to class) and then
ask for your final versions at the end of the semester. I expect at least weekly entries.
This is your opportunity to reflect on how you behave as a leader in your “natural”
environment. It also provides you with the opportunity to monitor your progress
throughout the semester.
Movie Review:
The movies provide us with opportunities to glimpse at leadership in situations we might
never be exposed to. You will select one movie from the following list on a first come
first served basis. A 2 to 3 page write up on what you learned about leadership from the
mo vie and how it relates to class topics will be due anytime during the semester up to
Nov 30th.
Movies to choose from:
1. Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
2. Twelve angry men
3. Twelve o’clock high
4. Norma Rae
5. Kinky Boots
6. Miracle at Oxford
7. Miracle
8. Varsity Blues
9. Wall Street
10. Boiler Room
11. Tucker a man and his dream
12. The Replacements
13. The Godfather
14. Glengarry Glen Ross
15. Talladega Nights
16. Glory
17. Jerry McGuire
18. Braveheart
Final Paper:
One of the key differentiating elements of effective leaders is that they know themselves,
what their strengths and weaknesses, know what they want from life and what their
principles are.
The objective of this paper is for you to write your obituary. If that reference bothers you,
you can think of it as writing a profile on yourself. What do you want people to
remember you by, what do you hope your greatest accomplishments to be, what kind of
example will you set?
The paper should be between 6 and 12 pages long. The pages should be double spaced
and with reasonable type and margins. Please use headings to separate the different
sections.
The paper is due on Dec. 7th.
OFFICIAL POLICY ON ACADEMIC HONESTY AND INTEGRITY
Loyola Marymount University expects high standards of honesty and integrity from all
members of its community. Applied to the arena of academic performance these
standards preclude all acts of cheating on assignments or examinations, plagiarism,
forgery of signatures or falsification of data, unauthorized access to University computer
accounts or files, and removal, mutilation or deliberate concealment of materials
belonging to the University Library.
Students who commit any offense against academic honesty and integrity may receive
from an instructor a failing grade in an assignment or a failing grade in a course without
possibility of withdrawal. The nature of any of the offenses mentioned above may dictate
suspension or dismissal from the university or any other penalty as determined by the
student’s Dean and/or the Academic Vice President. A copy of the hearing and appeals
process is available from the Academic Vice President’s Office.
Special Accommodations
Students with special needs who need reasonable modifications, special assistance, or
accommodations in this course should promptly direct their request to the Disability
Support Services Office. Any student who currently has a documented disability
(physical, learning, or psychological) needing academic accommodations should contact
the Disability Services Office (Daum Hall # 224, x84535) as early in the semester as
possible. All discussions will remain confidential. Please visit www.lmu.edu/dss for
additional information.
Class Schedule
Date
Aug
31st
Topic
Introduction, definition
of leadership
Sept 7th
Sept
14th
University Holiday
What makes a leader?
Learning paper 1 due
Sept
21st
History of the field
Learning paper 2 due
Sept
28th
Creating powerful
visions
Readings
Giroux, Lance (2002). On Principled leadership: It’s
the Person Not the Title. USF Graduate Business
School September 2002.
 Kouzes, James M; Posner, Barry Z (2002). The
leadership challenge. Jossey-Bass. Pages 3-22,
25.
 Kim, W. Chan; Mauborgne, Renee A (1992)
Parables of Leadership. Harvard Business Review
July-August 2002.
 Welch, Jack; Welch, Suzy (2009) The
Difference Dignity Makes Businessweek June
22, 2009.
 Needleman, Sarah (2009). Dial-a-mattress
Retailer Blames Troubles on Stores, Executive
Team. Wall Street Journal July 14, 2009.
 Swisher, Kara (2009). A Question of
Management. Wall street Journal June 2, 2009.
 Taylor III, Alex (2009). Toyota’s New Man at the
Wheel. Fortune July 6, 2009pp 82-85
 Anderson, Kelli (2007). Master Stroke. Stanford
magazine. January-February 2007. p 66-71.
 Johnson, Roy S (2008) Ready for some Football.
Stanford, September/October 2008, pp 54-59
 Gardner, Howard (1996). George C. Marshall.
In Leading Minds: an anatomy of leadership.
 Goleman, Daniel (2000). Leadership that gets
results. Harvard Business Review March-April
2000. P 79-90.
 Thonberry, Neal (2006). A view about vision.
In. Rosenbach and Taylor (eds). Contemporary
Issues in Leadership. Westview press. p 31-43.
 Senge, Peter M. (2006) The fifth discipline: the
art and practice of the learning organization.
New York Doubleday/Currency. Chapter 10.
 Welch, Jack; Welch, Suzy (2009) Obama: A
Leadership Report Card. Businessweek April
20, 2009.
 Ready, Douglas A; Conger, Jay A. (2008).
Enabling Bold Visions. MIT Sloan Management
Review, Winter 2008. Pp 70-76
Oct 5th
Communication to a
group
Learning paper 3 due
 Caproni, Paula (2001). Practical Coach:
management skills for everyday life. Prentice
Hall (Simon & Schuster). Chapter 4 p 82-117
 http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotlerhetoric/
 Baker, Stephen (2009) Reading the Body
Language of Leadership. Businessweek March
23 and 30, 2009. Pp 48.
Oct 12th
Communication One on
One
 Senge, Peter M. (2006) The fifth discipline: the
art and practice of the learning organization.
New York Doubleday/Currency. P 175-188
 http://www.solonline.org/pra//tool/ladder.html
 Review Caproni
Oct 19th
Emotional Intelligence
 Goleman, Daniel (1998). What makes a leader?
Harvard Business Review November-December
1998. p 93-102. Reprint No. 98606
 Burrell, Lisa (2006). The CEO Who Couldn't
Keep His Foot out of His Mouth. Harvard
Business Review. Reprint R0612X.
Oct 26th
Leadership and Ethics
 Burlingham, Bo (2009) No compromise. Inc
July/August 2009. Pp 78-85.
 Bellman, Eric (2009). Mahindra Satyam’s New
Owner Tries to Move Beyond Disgraced
Founder. Wall Street Journal July, 31, 2009.
Learning paper 4 due
Nov 2nd
Leading teams
 Roberto, Michael; Carioggia, Gina; (2003).
Mount Everest 1996. Harvard Business School
Case 9-303-061.
 Hackman, Richard (2002). Leading teams.
Harvard Business School Press. Chapter 7
Imperatives for leaders. p 199-232
Nov 9th
Leading and power
 Margaret Thatcher. Harvard Business School
Case 9-497-018.
 Pfeffer, Jeffrey (2003). Developing and
exercising power and influence. In Porter,
Angle, Allen (eds) Organizational influence
processes second edition. M.E. Sharpe. p 15-32.
 Stengel, Richard (2008). Mandela His 8 Lessons
of Leadership. Time July 21, 2008. Pp 42
 Welch, Jack; Welch, Suzy (2008) Resisting the
Pull of Office Politics. Businessweek December
Learning Paper 5 Due
22, 2008.
Nov
16th
Leading change
 Kiley, David (2009). Ford’s Savior?
Businessweek, March 16, 2009. Pp 30-34.
 Welch, Jack; Welch, Suzy (2008). What are
change agents made of? Businessweek October
20, 2008.
 Taylor III, Alex (2009). Fixing Up Ford.
Fortune May 29, 2009. Pp 44-51.
Nov
23rd
Dark Side of
Leadership
 Kellerman, Barbara (2004). Leasdership Warts
and All. Harvard Business Review. January
2004 pp 40-45.
 Personal Histories. Harvard Business Review
December 2001 pp 27-38.
 Howell Doctrine. The New Yorker.
Nov
30th
Learning from
success/failure
 Bennis, Warren; Thomas, Robert (2002).
Crucibles of leadership. Harvard business
review September 2002. P 39-45 Reprint
R0209B.
 Moments of Truth. Harvard Business Review
January 2007.
 Stein, Peter (2009). At Temasek, a Foreign
CEO-to-Be Won’t. Wall Street Journal. July, 22
2009.
Movie Write-Up Due
Dec 7th
Wrap up/plans for the
future
Final Paper and
Journal Due
Assignments
Learning Paper 1 Due September 14th
Interview 10 to 12 people, ask them “what kind of person are you willing to follow?”
Analyze your results and what you learn from them. It is not necessary nor recommended
that you list verbatim what all your interviewees said. A few well placed quotes will be
welcomed but the key to the assignment is what you make of what people tell you.
You might select your interviewees randomly, go to a coffee shop for example, or you
might set up a criteria you are interested in, arts students versus business students.
Learning Paper 2 Due September 21st
Analyze the styles of the three leaders, how do they match up with Goleman’s theory and
categories? Do you think these leaders can be effective under all circumstances? What
makes them different and effective?
Learning Paper 3 Due Oct 5th
Read aloud the text of MLK’s “I have a dream” speech to someone (can be just one
person or more). What was your reaction? What was your audience’s reaction? What did
it feel like? Do you think it worked? Why?
Learning Paper 4 Due Oct 26th
Describe a situation in which your values/ethics have been challenged. How did you deal
with it? What else could you have done?
Learning Paper 5 Due Nov 9th
Describe ways to improve your political capital. Please be specific, this is about your own
power not just an abstract concept.