COURSE NUMBER: MBA296.4A
COURSE TITLE: The Art of
Coaching Conversations
UNITS OF CREDIT: 1
INSTRUCTOR: Cort Worthington
E-MAIL ADDRESS: cort@haas.berkeley.edu
MEETING DATES: Spring A
only (1/18-3/1)
PREREQUISITE(S): None
CLASS FORMAT: We
will utilize lecture, discussion, and exercises in each class.
REQUIRED READINGS: assorted
books, cases, and articles.
BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: a
combination of class participation, written work, presentations, and possible
exam.
ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S
CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:
Over the last two decades
coaching has emerged as a central element in leadership development, and in the
arc of a career leaders can expect multiple opportunities to coach and be
coached. This course explores both sides of the
equation. In peer to peer sessions, students will have weekly
opportunities to practice delivering and receiving coaching, while being
exposed to leadership development frameworks. This course will
explore underlying themes of personal character, values, mindfulness, and
adaptability. Assigned cases will ground us in business and
leadership applications.
CAREER FIELD:
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
Cort Worthington teaches leadership courses in Haas graduate and
undergraduate programs. A leadership consultant, his
organizational client list includes Exxon Mobil, Sumitomo Bank, Oracle, Square,
the US Army, Kaiser, McKesson, and Stanford University.
Prior to
teaching at Berkeley, Cort was co-founder of toy
company Primordial, LLC, where he raised capital and served as Director of
Operations. He also worked for many years as a film producer,
directing documentary crews around the world.
Other
relevant experiences include fourteen seasons leading elite teams as a forest
fire fighter and parachuting U.S. Forest Smokejumper, which piqued his interest
in emergent strategies and improvisational principles as applied to leading
within complex, dynamic systems. He has been actively utilizing improvisation
as a methodology for enhancing personal communication and leadership skills
since 1997.
Cort holds an MA in Communication from Stanford University, an MBA
from Columbia University Business School, and an MBA from U.C. Berkeley.