Welcome to the free course Developing leadership practice in voluntary organisations. This course provides an opportunity for people who work within voluntary organisations, as paid employees or staff, to develop energetic, practical and thoughtful leadership practice. Please take our survey about thiscourse to give us feedback, inform future work, and have the (optional) opportunityto get more involved if you are interested. You do not need to havefinished studying this course in order to take the survey.The course will take approximately 15 hours to complete, divided up into 5 weeks, each of which follows a standard pattern to make it easier to plan your time.As you work through the course, there are some in-text activities to help test your understanding of the material. At the end of the course you will receive a Statement of Participation so that you can share your achievement with others.The Information and guidance describes each of the weeks, provides information about the learning journal and discussion forum and introduces the course authors. It also includes information about permissions and copyright and it is important that you read this before starting the course.The course is produced by The Open University's Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership (CVSL). The CVSL was established thanks to the generous support of Mr Anthony Nutt BA.This course is an update of the course Introducing leadership in voluntary organisations.Â
Overview
Syllabus
- Introduction and guidance
- 1 Our leadership, this course
- 2 Take control of your own development: join in with our development community
- 3 Your learning journal and discussion forum
- 4 Who we are
- Acknowledgements
- Week1Week 1: Thinking leadership
- Introduction
- 1 Slippery leadership, significant leadership
- 2 Leadership and management: what's the difference?
- 3 Leadership and management in practice
- 4 Why is leadership relevant for the voluntary sector?
- 5 A definition of leadership
- 6 Key practice: observation
- 7 Summary of Week 1
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week2Week 2: Leadership as person: traits leadership
- Introduction
- 1 Leadership as traits
- 2 Camila Batmanghelidjh and Kids Company
- 3 Leadership as traits theory: the basics
- 4 Leadership traits: the critique
- 5 Leadership traits and Camila: a critique
- 6 Thinking critically about your work
- 7 Key practice: critical engagement
- 8 Summary of Week 2
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week3Week 3: Transformational leadership and power
- Introduction
- 1 Transformational leadership: origins and main features
- 1.1 Camila Batmanghelidjh and transformational leadership
- 1.2 Benefits and problems with transformational leadership
- 2 Sacred leadership?
- 2.1 Keeping your organisation real
- 3 Narcissism: the root of the leader-centred problem?
- 3.1 Surviving narcissism
- 4 Re-imagining our leaders
- 5 Key practice: constructing
- 6 Summary of Week 3
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week4Week 4: Leadership as ethics
- Introduction
- 1 What does ethics mean?
- 2 Leadership as purpose
- 2.1 The forces driving purpose
- 3 Leadership and ethical dilemmas
- 4 Three approaches to reading an ethical dilemma
- 5 Engaged leadership ‘within’ ethical dilemmas
- 6 Leading through tragedy
- 7 Key practice: ethical reflection
- 8 Summary of Week 4
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week5Week 5: Leadership as practice
- Introduction
- 1 Defining leadership practice
- 2 Performances of leadership
- 2.1 Critical reflection
- 2.2 Constructive debate
- 2.3 Asking awkward questions
- 2.4 Telling powerful stories
- 3 Aesthetic spaces of leadership
- 4 Technologies of leadership
- 5 Key practice: aesthetic awareness
- 6 Summary of Week 5
- Course reflection and conclusion
- References
- Acknowledgements
