The unique content and learning/teaching methods employed in this course are based on a new ontological / phenomenological model of leader and leadership. This new model of leadership has been specifically designed to provide you with access to being a leader and to the effective exercise of leadership as your natural self-expression.
- Rather than studying and trying to emulate the characteristics, styles, and actions of noteworthy leaders, or to merely impart knowledge about leadership, this new model of leadership provides you with access to being a leader and to the effective exercise of leadership as your natural self-expression.
- Rather than providing you with an epistemological mastery of leader and leadership (which leaves you knowing), we will provide you with access to an ontological mastery of leader and leadership (which leaves you being a leader and exercising leadership as your natural self-expression).
In short, when you have completed this course you will walk out in the world of being a leader and exercising leadership effectively.
This leadership course will provide you with opportunities to:
- Achieve significant breakthroughs in your professional and personal life – in any environment in which you are committed to making a difference, including with yourself.
- Find yourself in a leadership situation with direct access to being a leader and exercising leadership effectively, as your natural self expression.
For those holding a leadership position or those with little or no leadership experience, this course has an established record of making a significant difference for participants.
When you have completed this course, you will have experienced whatever personal transformation is required for you to be a leader as your natural self-expression – in any environment and no matter what conditions confront you. Even when you personally lack certain experience or knowledge, you will know what to do to be an effective leader.
Handbook for Teaching Leadership
The quotes below are from the editor’s introduction of a chapter titled “Creating Leaders: An Ontological/Phenomenological Model” written by Werner Erhard, Michael C. Jensen (deceased), and Kari Granger in the book “The Handbook for Teaching Leadership: Knowing, Doing, and Being”. The book is edited by Harvard Business School’s Scott Snook (Senior Lecturer, Harvard Business School), Nitin Nohria (Dean, Harvard Business School, and George Baker Professor of Administration), and Rakesh Khurana (Dean of Harvard College, and Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development).
“How does one teach leadership in a way that not only informs them about leadership but also transforms them into actually being leaders? …this eclectic group of scholars argues for adopting a decidedly ontological approach to leadership education that promises to leave students actually being leaders. Contrasting their ontological approach described as being and action as experienced “on the court” with more traditional perspectives where leadership is observed and commented on “from the stands,” this chapter presents a rigorous theory of leadership education that begins and ends with the following bold promises to students:
- “You will leave this course being who you need to be to be a leader.
- “You will leave this course with what it takes to exercise leadership effectively.
“…by following a rigorous, phenomenologically based methodology, students have the opportunity to create for themselves a context that leaves them actually being a leader and exercising leadership effectively as their natural self-expression.”
The chapter described above by the editors is available for download at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1681682.
The History Of This Course
This course was created when it was first taught (from 2004 through 2008) at the University of Rochester Simon School of Business, NY, USA by utilizing the classroom as a laboratory. Since 2008 the course has been continuously developed and taught by us every year in an academic institution, such as the United States Air Force Academy, the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Clemson University’s College of Business in South Carolina, USA, and most recently at the University of California at Los Angeles. The course has been taught to undergraduates, graduate students, administrators, alumni, business executives, management consultants, and faculty from various academic institutions. The course has also been offered to the public by us in five international locations such as Whistler, B.C. Canada (2012) and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (2016), each for the benefit of the Erhard-Jensen Ontological / Phenomenological Initiative (a charitable foundation).
Since 2010 (in that year under the sponsorship of the Kauffman Foundation, the Gruter Institute, and the United States Air Force Academy) we have trained over 150 scholars to effectively deliver the course. These scholars (all of whom had previously taken the course) are from various academic institutions from North, Central and South America, Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, the West Indies, the Middle East, and Russia. Forty-four of these scholars are currently offering the course in their universities or colleges. We have also taught the course to a group of over 200 management consultants from more than 60 firms who now offer the course or material from the course to their clients, which clients include almost all the top Fortune 50 companies.
