Leadership, Theory and Practice

The foundational module for this course, where we examined and studied key leadership theories and determined which ones were best suited to our styles of leadership. This has given me a great deal of knowledge and I have continued to develop thoughts on these theories throughout the year.

Assignments: The final project for this module: a group paper and presentation on a business leader of our choice. We chose Pat Gelsinger: ex-CEO of Intel, Honorary Taylor Doctorate and Executive Chair of Gloo.

Intercultural Leadership

An challenging and eye-opening course! I learnt a great deal about implicit biases, my own cultural profile and how better to interact with those from a different culture. Will undoubtedly be useful as I transition back to the workplace in the US, where most encounters are intercultural for me.

Assignments: 3 key assignments from our cultural intelligence course, including a culminating research proposal examining the effectiveness of Christian missionary training with regards to cultural intelligence. It was fascinating to learn about my cultural profile and how to better develop my cultural competence.

Personality and Leadership Development

A very engaging course in our first semester, where we examined the effectiveness and validity of personality assessments, and our own personalities. This enabled us to best determine which type of leadership styles we are best suited to and how to effectively lead from our strengths.

Assignments: A culminating 3-part paper and presentation. Analyses Leadership Development, Personality Development and a Metacognitive analysis of leadership theories. A short reflection on our Cajita project, where we shared deep, personal items to tell a story of our life.

Professional and Ethical Decision-Making

A particularly engaging class, where discussion and interaction were always useful. I now understand most if not all permutations and motivations of the trolley problem! There was a great deal of presenting throughout this class and when done in an engaging manner brought about a great deal of meaningful discussion. It was fascinating to see the differences in opinions on ethics even within an all Christian environment.

Assignments: Ethics in the news presentation, Ethics in the Bible presentation, Ethical Dilemma Paper. This final paper enabled me to collate all I had learnt throughout the course and present an ethical challenge that I am still working out! As I have often come to the conclusion with in this module, sometimes the answer is in the middle or in the gray!

Strategic Leadership

This module had a great deal of practical application, we learnt about the WHY’s of organizations through the teachings of Simon Sinek, as well as the importance of Candor and having smart people around you in Ed Catmull’s Creativity Inc. This class also fostered great discussion and learning, and stretched my understanding of how organizations should and can be run.

Assignments: My paper and presentation on the organization I would like to lead one day. The Turner Party, a political party in the UK named after my late step grandfather.

Leadership Seminar and Field Experience

A J-term course where we looked at practical applications of our leadership learnings and started to enact some of the vocational finding work we had begun. I had a great experience working with the fundraising team at the university, as well as on our retreat with JR Briggs, a leadership coach and author.

Assignments: A reflective paper on my field experience trip to Nashville with advancement. A great opportunity to learn about fundraising in a Christian way. A reflection on our cohort retreat with J.R. Briggs, a leadership coach, and author of The Art of Asking Better Questions.

Organizational Leadership and Administration

This class was great because we were combined with MAHE (Masters in higher education students). We got great insight into the higher education space and with it being taught by Skip Trudeau who has been at the university for a long time we gained a special level of insight and experience. This class focused strongly on the pitfalls of leadership and administration, and what measures we can implement to avoid them.

Assignments: The final paper for this project, in which I covered the History and of Leadership Theories, and Leadership in the sales industry.

Leadership and Spirituality

One of the most engaging courses for me. Having not had a Christian higher education experience before I found this to be especially growing and moving. The texts completely challenged the ways I previously thought about things in quite a meaningful way. We had some very personal discussion in this class and I was very grateful for the welcoming, non-judgemental environment created.

Assignments: A presentation outlining my leadership philosophy, something which was worked on and developed throughout the semester. A short, personal poem explaining where I am from, and a project where I wrote my own Eulogy.

Organizational Leadership, Governance and Culture

Another great module where we had the privilege of working with MAHE students. This course also had a great deal of practical application, which was blended well throughout the year with theoretical approaches as well. I really enjoyed the case study, organizational audit and challenge projects we had to do. I imagine many of the skills developed in these assignments will be transferable to the workplace in the future.

Assignments: Our organizational challenge project. We examined graduate culture and experience at Taylor, and acted as consultants to analyse the issue and make recommendations for improving it.