LEAD 12
Principles and Practice of Effective Leadership Winter 2025

This course will examine issues related to effective leadership in a variety of contexts, primarily through the experience of guest lecturers. We will begin by identifying key principles of leadership with reference to several great leaders in history, moving on to consider contemporary topics such as personal responsibility, self-awareness development and service orientation. We will investigate the essential role that good communications skills play in exercising leadership. The majority of class sessions will feature distinguished guest speakers, several of whom are Williams alumni, who have held leadership roles in government, business, non-profit organizations, and healthcare. Probing our guests’ approaches to organizational leadership is the primary goal of this Winter Study. After each lecture, we will spend time in the next class sharing impressions, surprises and lessons learned. At the end of the course students will be required to present for10-15 minutes. They will be expected to integrate lessons learned from others into their own nascent story of leadership in their own lives. In that sense this course will operate on three levels — the intellectual, the personal and the practical. Fundamental to this exploration will be a simple, action-oriented question: now that you know more, how can you do more?