SEMESTER: Spring 2018

COURSE NUMBER: EWMBA 291T-11

COURSE TITLE: Leader as Coach: New Skills for New Leadership Roles

UNITS OF CREDIT: 1 Unit

INSTRUCTORS: Susan Houlihan

E-MAIL ADDRESSES: susan_houlihan@mba.berkeley.edu

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: The course will meet over 2 Sundays, 8 and 22 April, from 9 am to 6 pm.

Please note the unorthodox format of this course, which meets all day on two Sundays. You must attend both sessions in their entirety in order to earn a passing grade.

PREREQUISITE(S): EWMBA 200C – Leadership Communications

CLASS FORMAT: Leadership is a scarce resource in today’s workplace. Excellent leadership involves a synergistic combination of agentic skills (getting the work done) and people skills. 

There are plenty of leaders who have learned the essential analytic tools necessary for leadership. However there are far fewer leaders who are skilled in motivating and developing employees so that these individuals can unleash their potential in order to maximize their performance. 

To achieve these sorts of results leaders can learn to become trusted advisors and coaches for their people. 

Coaching involves direct interaction with a person, team or unit with the goal of identifying talent, developing skills, and deepening knowledge within people and across people and units. In addition, coaching often addresses removing barriers that are preventing the individual or work group from achieving desired results. 

This course focuses on the art and science of coaching including theory and practice. The curriculum will cover theory and practice for three aspects of the coaching process – knowledge-based (information and skills), motivation-based (inspiration and passion), and strategy-based (communication and integration). 

The course will enable course participants to become skilled coaches for peers, work groups and direct reports. The curriculum will focus on primary coaching skills. tools, processes and behaviors that a coach uses. In addition, participants will learn facilitation skills as the preferred methodology in achieving successful coaching programs. 

Course participants will have the opportunity to utilize this material in practice coaching sessions with supervision and feedback from peers and the instructor. 
Topics to be addressed and worked with in the coaching process include the roles of a trusted advisor, creative problem solving, interpersonal barriers (what is holding a person back), people skills, relationship building, dialogue skills, negotiation tools, managing conflict and teamwork. 
Course Objectives:

  1. Become a coach who can help others maximize their performance and unlock the potential of the workforce.
  2. Develop dialogue and relationship building skills leading to a better understanding of others.
  3. Coach with presence and communicate effectively.
  4. Understand the roles of the leader (coach, mentor, supporter, advisor).
  5. Work with emotional intelligence in becoming a trusted advisor.

GRADING:
50% based on in class participation 
50% based on written assignments & coaching exam

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
Susan Houlihan is on the professional faculty of the Walter Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, where she teaches in the Leadership Communications program for the Evening & Weekend MBA students as well as for the students of the MBA for Executives Program with Dr. Mark Rittenberg. She leads a Leadership Communications program for Undergraduate students. Susan is an Instructor at UC Berkeley Executive Education and serves on the Faculty of the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute. She is a Guest Lecturer at the School of Creative Leadership in Berlin, and has taught in UC Berkeley School of Data Science, UC Berkeley Coleman Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership, and UCLA Anderson School of Management. She also heads up the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute strategic operations.
Susan Houlihan is a communications consultant, executive coach, and electrical engineer who leverages her 15+ years working in engineering and operations in the high-tech sector in Silicon Valley to bring a perspective firmly rooted in business applications to her consulting and coaching work.
Susan holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from University College of Cork in Ireland, an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, and is a certified Executive Coach from the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute.
In addition to one-on-one executive coaching, Susan facilitates leadership, communications and coaching workshops as well as communications coaching of presentation skills, working with clients on the material (e.g. Powerpoint) and the delivery (content, verbal and non-verbal).
A native of Ireland now based in the US, Susan is an experienced cross-cultural communicator, who has worked extensively with individuals and Fortune 500 companies in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Clients include Salesforce.com, Adobe, Facebook, Biorad, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital of Oakland, Cisco Systems, Qualcomm, Peterson CAT, Financial Women of San Francisco, IEEE, UCSF, UC Hastings, Genentech, Novartis, Cypress Semiconductor, Ideo, McKinsey (Dubai), Fattals (Lebanon), Odgers Bernstein (Russia), Siam Cement (Thailand), and The Berlin School (Germany).
Susan is excited to work with people to uncover their passions, explore their values, move past their obstacles, and build a fulfilling personal and professional life.