Leadership Program

Course goals

In the Leadership Programme, you will learn about effective, adaptive and personal leadership from both theory and practice. After the programme you will be able to:

• integrate different disciplinary scientific perspectives on leadership and apply them to leaders and leadership issues;
• engage effectively in constructive communication with diverse leaders from society;
• demonstrate (personal) leadership skills and reflect on them critically with peers;
• engage on-site in issues that leaders are facing in their daily practice;
• explain clearly and convincingly a personal vision of leadership

Content

Leadership is a complex multidimensional concept that has been defined in many different ways. There is an emerging consensus that leadership is interdisciplinary in nature, especially in today's rapidly changing globalizing world with increasing exchanges of living environments, cultures, knowledge and economies. Grand challenges such as climate change, food security,  changing economic powers, rising income inequality, destabilizing countries, and global pandemics cannot be solved by a quick fix. Such societal challenges require effective leaders, who can synthesize knowledge across seemingly disparate fields while integrating theory and practice, scholarship and intuition, and skills and authenticity. Example of settings in which interdisciplinary leadership skills are required include amongst others: Academia where multidisciplinary research teams are leaded towards a positive impact on society; in health professions where, increasingly, healthcare teams must communicate and collaborate in an efficient and effective manner; or in business where leaders must understand that organizations are learning organizations where leaders should be designers, stewards, and teachers.

The Utrecht University Leadership Programme takes on the task of educating you as future leader within an interdisciplinary context. This means that the programme draws on the  cross-cutting expertise of researchers from various faculties within our university and professional experts and leaders from a variety of fields. By means of discursive interactions and discussions, trainings, small group intervision and coaching, and collaborative assignments, you will apply theoretical knowledge to real-life leadership issues, get a better understanding of what it means to be a leader in a globalizing world, and find out and get trained on what kind of leader you are or want to be.

The programme is scientifically sound, yet practice-oriented and allows master students from all faculties, cultural backgrounds and genders, with varied theoretical or professional leadership knowledge to participate and collaborate.