April 2023 – Transformational Leadership – Intensive Interdisciplinary Training Course

The Leadership Academy at the University of Ottawa will be giving its 3rd annual offering of an intensive six-day interdisciplinary leadership training course to faculty and administrative staff, as well as alumni and members of the public in 2023.

The course will be offered on campus April 13, 14, 20, 21, 27 and 28, 2023.

This model, centered on leadership as a way of being, encourages participants to create futures that lead to action. In the spirit of collegiality and interdisciplinarity, we will explore an inclusive and comprehensive vision of leadership that emphasizes producing lasting transformations for individuals, teams and organizations.

The takeaways

• Access to a new approach to leadership as a way of being and acting (and not as a product of charisma, characteristics, title, or authority);
• Significant breakthroughs in one’s professional and personal lives – in any environment, under any circumstances;
• Identification of ways of being that are interfering with the possibility of exercising leadership effectively;
• Support in developing or creating one’s own leadership project;
• Reconnection with one’s power to make things happen, and with the source of aliveness that generates the desire to make noteworthy contributions to others;
• Discovery of how to deal with personal or organizational inertia and lack of motivation in teams; working in a way that speaks to every member of a team;
• Reframing of one’s roles (researcher, professor, support staff, parent, public servant, etc.) as opportunities for self-expression and contribution to something bigger than oneself.

What you agree to:

• Full participation – 3 Thursdays and 3 Fridays, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• Completion of preparatory readings before the start of the course, approximately 50 pages

Registration

Register before April 1, 2023

For more information on the course and registration fees send an email to [email protected]

Leadership in Academia and in Life

Being a student in the 21^st century demands much more than having specialized knowledge. To that effect, the course Leadership in Academia and in Life offers a training that deviates from the traditional teaching model, based on the addition of knowledge, to adopt a more experiential model that promotes discovery learning. Through this course, you will have access to a new approach to leadership: you will see and live leadership as a way of being and acting that is accessible to all and not necessarily linked to notions of charisma, title or authority; you will design and carry out your own leadership project; and you will know how to make significant changes in your professional and personal lives – in any environment and under any circumstances.

Generally, there are two or three opportunities during the year to undertake the leadership training as an academic course (for credit) over the course of a regular 12-week academic term (either in the fall or the winter).  The Leadership Academy also offers an intensive version of the course each spring, taking place over the course of six days in May.  This intensive offering is available to anyone, but specifically targets professionals, scholars and members of the staff.  Each version of the course carries associated costs.

If you are interested in registering for leadership training via one of the offerings described above, please contact Professor Margarida Garcia ([email protected]) for more information and next steps.

The course encourages participants to imagine a created future, and to allow the possibilities of that future to influence how they live in the present, with its set circumstances. Participants engage in this endeavour by way of a course leadership project – simultaneously a playground in which to experiment with the course’s teachings and an opportunity to influence a situation in their lives requiring leadership.

Participants who have taken the course have engaged in leadership projects on an exceptionally wide range of topics, from addressing violence against women in a family context, to understanding the effects of isolation on elderly people. Other projects have sought to directly engage with different communities, from, for example, providing free CPR and AED training that is linguistically and culturally adapted to an underserved community, to creating institutional initiatives that aim to promote student mental health and well-being. The course provides participants with the tools they need to create and see their way through projects that can only occur through their intervention and contribution.

If the approach is of interest, Werner Erhard and Michael Jensen (with Kari Granger) wrote the Chapter entitled “Creating Leaders: An Ontological / Phenomenological Model” for the book The Handbook for Teaching Leadership: Knowing, Doing, and Being, edited by Scott Snook, Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer; Nitin Nohria, HBS Dean and George Baker Professor of Administration; and Rakesh Khurana, Dean of Harvard College.

The Alumni Community

The Leadership Academy alumni community is an assembly of people who have participated in a leadership course at the University of Ottawa derived from the course "Being a Leader and Effective Leadership: An Ontological/Phenomenological Model". Both (former) students as well as professors and administrative staff (from all Faculties) are welcome to become a member.

This project, led by Coline Moreau, a doctoral student from the Faculty of Social Sciences, offers the opportunity for participants of the leadership course to continue climbing the “mountain with no top” after the course is completed. It creates an opportunity for alumni to stay in the conversation of the course, to have the opportunity to share their discoveries and experiences, to support each other in their journeys and to have the opportunity to maintain contact with colleagues who have had the same experience.

Meetings will be held on a monthly basis. They will take place via Zoom, given the COVID-19 pandemic situation. The meetings will be bilingual, French-English. 

To register or be kept informed of the meetings program, please send an email with your contact details to the following address: [email protected].

"The Leadership Academy is an exercise in consciousness-raising, introspection and self-discovery. It’s not about theory, but about reflection, which in the end, naturally makes us better leaders."

Terry Skolnik
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Law, Civil Law Section
University of Ottawa

"Through the exercises and reflections, this course changed my relationship with myself and revolutionized my way of being and acting in the world."

Coline Moreau
Doctoral candidate in Criminology
University of Ottawa

"This is a unique course that allowed me to learn more about myself. It has provided me with a toolkit that I can rely on to exercise leadership effectively."

Jaskeerat Heera
Student, Faculty of Law
University of Ottawa

"The course helped shift my perspective and boost my confidence. It taught me to live life with wonder, and be present in the moment. I learned to get out of my head to truly be ‘out here’ and seize opportunities with the confidence that, I came to learn, I already had within me."

Aena Poologarajah
Student, Faculty of Law
University of Ottawa

"En tant qu’ancien sergent de police, coach d’athlètes, membre du CA d’une association sportive nationale et dirigeant d’entreprise, mener des hommes et des femmes fait partie de ma vie depuis plus de 25 ans. Malgré cette expérience, je me suis surpris à revoir le leadership d’une manière éclairante, utile, efficace, entière et profonde. Avec un grand sourire, à 55 ans, ce cours m’a permis d’évoluer alors que je croyais avoir compris...."

Alfredo Muñoz
Student, Faculty of Law
University of Ottawa

"I am eternally grateful to Professors Garcia and Kuntze for delivering this course, for allowing me to rediscover motherhood with my son, revealing my love for law school, restrengthening my commitment to environmental justice, and most importantly, for redirecting me on the path of my personal journey into being. This course is worth so much more than credits. It is not a lesson plan but a practical roadmap to being that this course gifts its students. I highly recommend this course be offered to law students before beginning their 1L semester. I truly believe in its potential to transform the culture and learning of law and leadership for a more positive experience that will pay dividends to all students’ mental health and wellness."

Sundeep Virdi
Student, Faculty of Law
University of Ottawa