Leadership, Communication and Innovation
This hands-on, interactive and stimulating course provides you with key theoretical and practical insights into leadership, intercultural communication and innovation in the workplace.
This course fosters the global skills that employers are looking for and helps you talk about them when applying for jobs. The first part of the course focuses on foundational concepts of leadership and explores these through authentic, timely and diverse examples. In the second part of the course, you’ll explore the relationship between communication and culture and its impact on leadership. In the final part of the course, you’ll learn the latest tools to foster innovation in an organisation and will start to develop your understanding of self as a leader to develop an action plan for turning your course takeaways into professional and personal practice.
Activities (such as reflections and other teamwork tasks) will provide the context for carrying out and presenting a mini-research project to propose a way to solve an innovation challenge and ways in which to leverage leadership skills to bring it to life. Exploring your own leadership and communication style through observation, analysis, and reflection will help you acquire the intercultural skills that are highly valued in graduates today.
Before I came to the Warwick Summer School, I just regarded it as a way to enrich my CV to help with my postgraduate degree application. However, what I truly gained was much more than a few words on my resume.
Zhengjie Shen (China)
Key Facts
Expected independent study: 90 hours
Optional assessment: Dependant on course
Typical credit: 3-4 credits (US) 7.5 ECTS points (EU)** Please check with your home institution
For more information on exams and credit, please see our Teaching and assessment page
Syllabus and Course Overview
We welcome students studying any discipline to study this course and it would be suitable to you if:
- You’re interested in leadership and ways in which we communicate with and influence people in different situations.
- You’re keen to develop your understanding of leadership, teamwork and innovation - in theory and in practice.
- You’d enjoy the experience of solving problems, working in groups and developing global skills that will be highly valued in your future career.
Week 1
Leadership and you
Leading a team
Leading a project
Leading a community
Week 2
Situational leadership
Influencing others
Decision making
Week 3
Transformation leadership
Complex and global problem solving
Demonstrating your leadership competencies to an employer
Presentations and course reflections
This course aims to highlight the crucial role of self awareness, communication and various global skills for leadership. It will familiarise you with the assumptions and expectations that shape our understanding of and practice of leadership, providing an opportunity to develop your critical thinking, problem solving and reflective skills while working within a global context and team.
By the end of this course you should be able to:
- Engage with key concepts related to leadership.
- Critically examine different types of leadership with a view of making impact through leadership.
- Understand the crucial role of self-awareness and other soft skills on effective leadership.
- Understand the role of culture and diversity in leadership, innovation and teamwork.
- Develop skills for working collaboratively and leading teams, projects and communities.
- Broaden your understanding of influence and authority in leadership.
- Practice problem solving and applying leadership skills to create change and innovation.
- Develop the intercultural skills that are essential for a global career.
- Be able to articulate and reflect on experiences to an employer.
- Create a personal leadership potential plan.
Course Structure
For this course, there will be 4 hours of teaching on most weekdays, consisting of interactive lectures, workshop activities and group work. The structure will be:
- 2 hours in the morning
- 2 hours in the afternoon
Students will also be given time each day for independent study.
Course Assessment
The module will be assessed via:
- Contribution in class including participation in workshop activities.
- Weekly reflective assessment – up to 1000 words (60%, individually written reflective piece of your key learnings on the course)
- Group presentation (40%, innovatively addressing a leadership challenge)
Everyone who completes the course – whether or not they sit the exam - will receive a certificate of attendance. However, by completing the assessment aspects you will also receive a grade/mark for the course which can be helpful to you.
Materials will be updated here after each lecture.
There are no prerequisites for this course.
This course is open to undergraduate and graduate students in any discipline. You may also join the course if currently in employment and would like to boost your leadership, communication and innovation skills. We welcome individuals from all backgrounds, including students who are currently studying another subject but who want to broaden their knowledge in another discipline. Students should also meet our standard entry requirements and must be aged 18 or over by the time the Summer School commences and have a good understanding of the English language.
Please note changes to the syllabus and teaching team may be made over the coming months before exact set of topics are finalised.
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