SPEC 31
Leadership + Communication = Leadership Communications Winter 2024

This is not the current course catalog

Hello: Anyone out there? Who am I? Is this thing on? It seems like just about everyone has a favorite example of a leader who flubbed their communications, often leading to personal ridicule, collective outrage and reputational harm for them and their organization. The world expects great communication from its leaders. It’s hard to even envision a model of effective modern leadership that doesn’t depend on successful communications. In this course, one leader and one communicator, who have found strength and joy in their working partnership, will introduce you to ideas and skills that can aid your own future success. Through selected readings, discussions, interesting guest speakers, real-life case studies and creative assignments we’ll help you understand the relationship between strong communications and sound leadership. In the process you’ll learn about voice and style, personality and institutional brand, the importance of empathy for one’s audience and communications in times of crisis, among other topics. Whether you want to be an entrepreneur or an economist, a corporate CEO or a symphony conductor… or maybe even a college president?… this class will give you early experience with skills you’ll need to succeed. The workload will be manageable but real, and the expectations high: come prepared to learn and we’ll have fun in the process!