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 (1/17-2/28)
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.
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.