Core Courses

The Leadership Core

The flagship of our course offerings revolves around the Leadership Core. Why leadership? First and foremost, we must lead ourselves through our personal and professional arenas. Secondly, the most effective teams have strong formal leaders that are enhanced by dynamic and effective informal leadership. In essence, we are all leaders whether we hold that title or not. The more mindful we can become of our roles as leaders, the more effective we are as human beings, in our relationships at work, at home and in our larger communities. 

Leadership I:

Understanding the ABCs of Mindful Leadership

This course explores the foundational concepts of mindful leadership through the lens of personal responsibility and the obligations that leadership requires. Students successfully completing Leadership I will gain a much clearer understanding of how their leadership style affects their colleagues, teams and their organization.  Leadership I is bracketed and personalized by customized pre-work and customized post-work. Students will be asked to complete a self-evaluation instrument identifying their own Attitudes, Behaviors and Cognitions and whether these ABCs help or hinder success. Throughout the workshop this self-analysis will be tested. The workshop will be followed by a thorough reassessment self-evaluation highlighting changes to the leader’s ABCs.

This course is themed around 3 foundational concepts: 

  1. Attitudes, Behaviors and Cognitions and their impact on leadership.
  2. The concept of “Emotional Intelligence” (often called EQ, Emotional Quotient) is introduced and explored.
  3. The roles of “Captain, Crew & Cargo” are investigated in relation to their positive and negative effects on the team at large. Key principles reinforced include diversity, team member engagement, ego, and gender roles.

Leadership II:

Are we smarter than Leaf Mold?

This course explores the gap between self-perception, (belief about our own leadership skills) compared and contrasted with actual perceived leadership performance.  The course will present three major concepts: 

  1. The “Big Five”: 1) Attention to Detail; 2) Situational Awareness; 3) A Sense of Urgency; 4) Present Time Consciousness, and; 5) Restatement of the Obvious.
  2. The Golden Mean, Aristotle’s principle of striking a delicate balance on the leadership spectrum in all things.
  3. Leadership Reciprocity.  

Leadership II will conclude with a leadership practicum where students will demonstrate effective Attitudinal, Behavioral and Cognitive tools.

Leadership III:

The Relational Leadership Paradigm

This leadership capstone course introduces the Relational Leadership Paradigm (RLP). The paradigm demonstrates how leadership impacts the world of those around you, your team and the organization at large. Utilizing the context that the RLP provides, Leadership III will integrate knowledge content from Leadership I and II and focus on refining the student’s awareness and understanding of how their own World View (underlying assumptions of how the world works) determines their Attitudes, Behaviors and Cognitions and how these ABCs in turn, hinder or help their personal leadership approach and the ultimate leadership results they achieve.

Leadership Core Summary

The Leadership Core is transformational by design and successful graduates will demonstrate:

  • Mindfulness of their own internal leadership process and how their spectrum of approaches can affect results.
  • An enhanced leadership toolbox capitalizing on their strengths and how to play those to their advantage as well as a clearer understanding of their weaknesses and how to mitigate those possible shortcomings.
  • The ability to readily jump into a leadership position upon demand and perform functions effectively in a team setting.
  • The requisite qualifications to enroll in any of the specialty Masters Level Courses offered by Synergy Tahoe.