COURSE NUMBER: MBA291T.1B
COURSE TITLE:
Interpersonal Skills and Embodied Leadership
UNITS OF CREDIT:
1
INSTRUCTOR:
Erica Peng
E-MAIL
ADDRESS: erica_peng@haas.berkeley.edu
MEETING
DATES: Fall B: 10/25, 11/1, 11/8, 11/15, 11/29, 12/6
CLASS WEB PAGE
LOCATION: TBD
PREREQUISITE(S):
None.
CLASS FORMAT: In
class lecture, experiential exercises, skill-building practices, and reflection
journals to capture learning and developmental progress.
REQUIRED
READINGS: Articles and several short videos on interpersonal development topics
and research.
BASIS FOR FINAL
GRADE: Attendance to every class session, class participation, submitted
reflection journals.
ABSTRACT OF
COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:
In today’s global environment, our personal and
professional lives are more complex, uncertain, and stressful.
What does it take to inspire and engage people - and teams
- across language, culture, and other dimensions of difference in a dynamic and
diverse world?
Thinking
alone is not enough.
Whether you’re at the beginning, middle, or later stages
of your career, being confident and effective in our current context – and
being perceived as such – requires more than cognitive knowledge and content
expertise.
Often leadership is described in
behavioral outcomes vs. actual specific skills and competencies necessary to
actually be effective and have influence and impact. I.e. “An effective leader
is emotionally intelligent, encourages multiple perspectives, and can help
teams navigate and leverage differences and conflict.”
While this may be a true
statement, how does it help an aspiring leader actually get from here to there?
Developing and embodying skills
and competencies for effective and influential leadership, requires concrete
practice, over time, and in developmental stages.
This goals of the course: 1) provide
a supportive experiential learning environment, 2)
facilitate development of foundational interpersonal skills in a spirit of fun
and discovery, 3) improve your ability to build rapport and influence as a team member
and/or leader, during your time at Haas and beyond.
The course is based on the
following elements:
·
Experiential activities and skill practice provide structure and
scaffolding for each class session. Through these experiential learning
opportunities, you will gain more awareness about your own reactions and tendencies, as well as insights about how your reactions and
behaviors impact others.
·
Research and information enable you to make meaning from the
experiential exercises and your own reactions and behaviors. Research topics
include: neuroscience, emotions, emotional intelligence, relationships,
communication, bias, and leadership.
·
Coaching and feedback from the instructor and classmates will help you
assess your impact and consider what skills and behaviors to focus on in terms
of practice and application.
Skill Development
The skills and competencies introduced in each class build upon each
other. They include the following:
·
Self-awareness
·
Grounded
presence
·
Empathic
listening
·
Self-regulation (managing
emotional “triggers” and “hot buttons”)
·
Comfort
with discomfort
·
Personal
disclosure / building trust and rapport
·
Taking
generative risks towards learning
·
Acknowledging
appreciation and positive influence
·
Giving
and receiving feedback
·
Requesting
feedback
·
Flexibility and openness
CAREER FIELD: Developing
interpersonal skills is foundational to being more effective and successful
across all career fields, and in both personal and professional arenas.
BIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCH: As a
leadership development consultant, instructor, and coach, Erica’s expertise is cultivating
"internal" grounded presence, along with "external" skills
and competencies. She incorporates somatic/whole body practices that transform
internal barriers (i.e. self-criticism, insecurity, perfectionism, etc.), into
embodied interpersonal and leadership skills. Having lived, worked, and
traveled extensively in Asia, Latin America and Europe, Erica brings nuanced
awareness and skill in navigating leadership and performance issues across
language, culture and other dimensions of difference.
Erica
facilitates and delivers interpersonal development courses at Haas School of Business,
Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), and University of San Francisco
School of Law. Erica coaches senior executives at Stanford’s Executive Education
Leadership Programs and leads women’s groups for professional women, Stanford
GSB students and alumni. At Haas, Erica also works with students as a
career coach, helping them clarify core skills, purpose, and values.
Through her coaching and consulting firm, Deep Stream Leadership
(www.deepstreamleadership.com), Erica partners with teams and emerging leaders
to senior executives, and has a deep commitment to supporting women and Asian
leaders. She offers high-impact leadership development workshops based on
the most popular interpersonal dynamics "T Group" course at Stanford
GSB. Erica also brings her skills and sensibility as an award-winning digital
storyteller, and performing singer and dancer, to support students and clients to
convey compelling personal leadership stories with engaging and grounded
presence.