COMM 628 Leadership and Communication

This course in leadership explored the complexity of leadership.  We spent a good deal of time looking at the question "what is leadership?"  Answering this question begins with a definition of a leader, which I suggest is a person with vision who is able to get followers to embrace his/her ideas. Leadership involves vision and change.  So how do people become leaders?  For some it seems innate, for many it is something that can be learned - and it evolves with practice and experience.

From a communications perspective, leaders influence followers through effective communications.  Leaders work with others to create meaning.   Leaders look to change the way people think about what is possible, while managers are problem solvers and tend to be reactionary instead of visionary.

From a theoretical standpoint we looked at leadership as originating from classical characteristics - the premise is that leaders have certain traits, skills and style that define them as leaders.  Alternatively, we looked at models of leadership that can give rise to notable individuals: situational, contingency and path-goal.  Further exploration of leadership looked into leader-member exchange (LMX theory) and transformational leadership.

To inform the definitions of a leader, we looked at current events, personal encounters and experiences and applied what we had learned in class on leadership theory and characteristics.  From looking at leaders like Lee Iacocca and the Dalai Lama, we learned a lot about both vision, passion, drive and integrity and how different leaders communicate their visions.

Because leadership is such a “hot” topic in business literature today, we explored what pop culture is saying about the subject.  This was a great addition, as it allowed the entire class to be exposed to well-known books that deal with various aspects of leadership, from Death by Meeting (Lencioni, 2004) to Bad Leadership: What it is, how it happens and why it matters (Kellerman, 2004) to Good to Great (Collins, 2001). 

I left this course thinking in an entirely different way about supervisors, about leaders, and about motivating people of all levels.  I have a broader vision of what leadership is, beyond the charismatic and Type A “types”, and have greater confidence in my own leadership abilities.

Leadership syllabus COMM 628 Syllabus

We wrote five application journal articles throughout the semester.  The first dealt with the differences between leadership and management Leadership Application Journal #1. The next paper was on my personal leadership style and the LTQ questionnaire  Leadership Application Journal #2,  The next application looked at leadership using insights from the Leader Member Exchange (LMX) theory Leadership Application Journal #3. The fourth journal dealt with ethics and leadership Leadership Application Journal #4. The next entry explored transformational leadership using the Dalai Lama to illustrate key attributes Leadership Application Journal #5.

The final journal was synopsis of leadership where I developed a personal action plan for how I intend to use the learnings from this class Personal Action Plan 


I did a book review and analysis on Collins' book Good to Great (2001) which I presented to the class: Good to Great Written Analysis, Good to Great Presentation, and Good to Great Presentation Outline.