• Understand and describe key concepts, theories and perspectives presented in the course and compare and discuss these critically
• Apply these concepts, theories and perspectives to empirical examples of leadership moments and show how these can assist in making reflected decisions about the enactment of leadership
• Reflect on the embodied foundations of concepts that are core to different theories of leadership, such as power, support, confidence, inspiration, motivation, appreciation, service, etc.
• Critically reflect upon the practical and theoretical limitations and implications of the applied concepts, theories and perspectives

Course content and structure

Through the course, students will be introduced to common leadership challenges in contemporary work-life and how these challenges can be addressed by understanding leadership as a collective, contextual, political and embodied process. That leadership is collective means that the phenomenon of leadership is not bound to a single individual and that designated leaders, therefore, must be as much at home in the leader as in the follower role. That leadership is contextual means that any concrete act of leadership is evaluated against the context in which it occurs. That leadership is political means that it always takes place within a field of power dynamics that must be understood and navigated. That leadership is embodied means that somatic experiences play a crucial role in guiding how leadership is enacted.

During the course, students will be presented with a range of leadership theories, which will be re-examined in the light of philosophical ideas, mainly drawn from continental philosophy, and in the light of new results in cognitive science which shows that human cognition is profoundly embodied in nature.

The course will combine concepts from philosophy, cognitive science and leadership theory, and the course will bring these to life through exercises where students are invited to put the concepts, theories and perspectives into practice. The goal of the course is to change the way you perceive the world, what you give attention and importance to and the way in which you navigate in the world. To achieve this objective, each session will contain exercises designed to gain practical experience with the theory in a practical context.

The course will draw on cases from the lecturer’s own research on hard leadership challenges as well as from his experience as executive coach.

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