Motivation
Society often associates leaders with individuals that have grandiose titles, a large corner office, and make world-changing decisions. Thus, many people shy away from identifying themselves as a leader. However, real leadership can be seen most clearly in the small moments throughout the day.
Leadership is about behaving in a way that makes the life of another person better than before you arrived. Dudley (2010)
General remarks
This module develops evidence-based leadership capabilities and systematic stakeholder management competencies essential for influencing organizational outcomes in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
To this end, you will read a series of scientific papers, consolidate and deepen your knowledge in exercises adn reflections, build a personal latticework of mental models for leadership, and research on a (digital) leader to make sense of her/his behavior using two theoretical lenses.
As a graded exam assignment, you will present your findings to your fellow students and deliver a substantive, theory-informed critique of one of their presentations.
It is very important that you prepare yourself for the classes (see Table 1 for details).
Contents
We follow an expanding circle of influence to build understanding of leadership at multiple levels — from self-awareness through interpersonal influence to organizational and ecosystem-level leadership:
- Foundations & mental models (latticework thinking, decision-making under complexity, the digital leadership context)
- The leader (traits, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, evolution of leadership thought)
- Adaptive leadership (paradoxes, competing values, behavioral complexity, situational approaches)
- Motivating & engaging followers (path-goal theory, self-determination theory, engaging leadership)
- Building high-performing teams (team development, psychological safety, diversity & inclusion, virtual teams)
- Conflict, power & politics (conflict dynamics, sources of power, lateral leadership, organizational politics)
- Stakeholder management & coalitions (social capital theory, stakeholder mapping, engagement strategies, coalition building)
- Leadership in context (cross-cultural leadership, ethical and sustainable leadership, adaptive leadership for digital transformation)
- Storytelling (narrative as a leadership tool, persuasion, stakeholder communication)
Learning objectives
During this course, you should improve your ability to consciously use, reflect on and further develop your leadership skills, in particular with regard to
- leadership requirements in the context of digital transformation and VUCA environments,
- identification of and reflection on your own leadership traits, strengths, and development areas,
- understanding and navigating leadership paradoxes and competing demands using adaptive approaches,
- creating conditions for follower motivation and work engagement,
- building and leading high-performing, psychologically safe, and diverse teams,
- analyzing and managing power dynamics, conflict, and organizational politics,
- systematic stakeholder identification, analysis, and engagement across multi-stakeholder environments, and
- communicating with impact using storytelling and narrative techniques.
Effort
You will gain 5 ECTS for this course. This equals approx. 150 hours workload, of which you need most to pass the course.
- Classes (approx. 30 hours)
- Preparation and follow-up (approx. 10 hours)
- Preparation of the presentation (remaining time)
Please prepare your schedule accordingly.
Schedule
It is of importance that you prepare yourself for the sessions and work on the case study continually. Please prepare your schedule accordingly.
| Date | Topic | Preparation |
|---|---|---|
| 25.03.2026 | Administrivia & Foundations | — |
| 01.04.2026 | Leader | Homework |
| 07.04.2026 | Deadline Leader Shortlist | Shortlist |
| 08.04.2026 | Adaptive Behavior & Assignment of Leaders | Homework |
| 15.04.2026 | Motivation | Homework |
| 22.04.2026 | Team (3 - 5.30 pm) | Homework |
| 29.04.2026 | Conflict & Power | Homework |
| 06.05.2026 | Stakeholder | Homework |
| 13.05.2026 | Context | Homework |
| 20.05.2026 | Communication | — |
| 07.06.2026 | Deadline: Slides Upload | Slides |
| 10.06.2026 | Student Presentations — Session #1 (extended to 5.30 pm) | — |
| 17.06.2026 | No lecture (ECIS) | — |
| 24.06.2026 | Student Presentations — Session #2 (extended to 5.30 pm) | — |
| 01.07.2026 | Student Presentations — Session #3 (extended to 5.30 pm) | — |
| 08.07.2026 | Retrospective Workshop (InnovationSpace, Creative 2) | — |