Stop forcing and start leading! Through Power and Leadership: Getting Below the Surface, you will become a better leader by exploring the differences between coercive power-based leadership and deeper "level three" leadership. Participants engage a powerful leadership model that includes personal characteristics, strategic thinking skills, abilities in influencing others, creating inspiring organizational designs, and principles of leading change. Each will be applied to a variety of challenges at the organizational, workgroup/functional, and personal levels. This program will stretch your view of leadership, your techniques of influence, and your role in your organization. In the end, leadership enables results—results based on engaged teamwork rather than coercive mercenary models.

• Managers who have mastered technical competencies but want to improve leadership skills. 
• New or prospective managers who want to understand the implications of the rapidly changing business climate on leadership effectiveness. 
• Leader-managers who feel a need to rejuvenate their abilities to see where to go, know how to get there, and know how to motivate others to follow.

• Clear frameworks for leading change. 
• Deeper understanding of leadership. 
• Develop both personal and organizational plans for improving leadership effectiveness. 
• Develop skills of strategic thinking, leading others, and leading by design. 
• Engage challenges that stretch leadership skills. 
• Explore and experience diverse leadership styles and their consequences. 
• Explore principles of world-class performance.
• Gain insight into the situational and personal factors in most leadership situations. 
• Reflect on personal leadership assumptions and practices. 
• Stronger leadership skills and the opportunity to practice these skills. 
• Understand how to get below the surface in leading others. 

• General Leadership Framework: Key Elements in Any Leadership Situation
• Personal Leadership Characteristics 
• Strategic Thinking 
• Developing Influence With Others 
• Leading Through Organizational Design 
• Six Steps to Effective Leadership 
• World-Class Performance and Leadership 
• The Language of Leadership: Effective Leadership Communication 
• The Difference Between Leadership and Power: Level Three Leadership 
• Leading Change 
• Developing Personal and Organizational Charters for Action

• Director, Human Resources 
• E-Learning Manager 
• Regional Director, Sales Operations 
• Senior Analyst 
• Vice President, Marketing 

• Aikido: An interactive introduction to a Japanese martial art that teaches leadership lessons.
• The Falls River Experience: A half-day outdoor experiential learning exercise that promotes team building and stretching personal boundaries.
• Research: Executives will explore recent research on world-class performance principles and models.
• Personal Charter Model: Participants will develop a personal charter model that applies to self, workgroups, and organizations.

Q. I am intrigued by the program but am a little hesitant about the physical activities. Can you tell me more about this?
A. As in all other Darden Executive Education programs, Power and Leadership emphasizes high levels of participant interaction. We include case studies as well as two half-day active exercises. The woods-ropes experience involves a number of team challenges, and the group introduction to Aikido provides exposure to a new and powerful approach to leadership. Neither is overly taxing.

Q. Who should take this program? 
A. We have designed Power and Leadership for managers who have mastered their technical competencies but want to improve their leadership skills. New or soon-to-be general managers who want to understand the implications of the rapidly changing business climate on leadership effectiveness will also benefit.

James G. Clawson
Johnson & Higgins Professor of Business Administration, The Darden School, University of Virginia.

Erika Hayes James
Visiting Associate Professor at the Harvard Business School and Bank of America Associate Professor of Business Administration, The Darden School, University of Virginia.