The Psychology of Leadership (The Self)

The impact of a leader is widespread; how you act, what you say and how you say it matters.  Evidence shows that your impact on an organisation is staggering. Whether your employee feels included is directly associated with what the leadership says and does (Bourke & Titus, 2020).  Furthermore, not understanding your impact can facilitate attrition, low productivity, lack of trust and high staff turnover (Sull, Sull & Zweig, 2022).  Psychologically informed leaders increase, productivity, inclusion, trust, belonging and satisfaction.

The Psychology of Leadership (The Self) module (PSYC11012) will begin the journey of understanding the psychology of leadership within three themes:

1. Understanding “The Self” (you and your leadership)
2. The Systems (knowing how your organisation will react to your leader)
3. The application of the knowledge (enhancing your practice as a psychology-aware leader).

At the end of this module the student will be able to:

• Demonstrate a critical and sophisticated understanding of leadership psychology in relation to self and organisation
• Apply complex concepts from the psychology of leadership to professional scenarios
• Demonstrate advanced skills of critical professional reflection and evaluation
• Articulate the outcomes of psychologically-informed professional reflection in an impactful format

During completion of this module, there will be an opportunity to achieve core skills in:

Knowledge and Understanding (K and U): Demonstrating and/or working with:

• A critical understanding of the theories, concepts and principles that are relevant to the role and impact of a leader
• Extensive, detailed and critical knowledge and understanding of the psychological processes involved in practicing leadership

Practice: Applied Knowledge and Understanding:

• Applying knowledge, skills and understanding: in the use of a range of practices and techniques based on psychological theory and/or using measurement to understand the role of leadership practice in cultivating leadership

Generic Cognitive skills:

•  Applying complex concepts involved in compassionate leadership to professional organisational change scenarios
•  Critically reflect upon their experience of leadership and change enablers in practice

Communication, ICT and Numeracy Skills:

•  Effectively communicating and collaborating with peers, academics and specialists
•  Using appropriate application/software to engage in blended and online learning activities
•  Effectively communicating their level of understanding through written work and also in seminars with peers

Autonomy, Accountability and Working with others:

• Exercising substantial autonomy and initiative in carrying out personal leadership practice and learning activities
• Taking responsibility for own work and contributing to the collective learning activities of the group in ways which support and develop critical reflection

 

Learning and Teaching

The module will be blended guided learning and self-directed study coupled with a flipped classroom approach to contact time.  The key is that the learning events offer space for the community to create meaningful co-productive learning.  Thus many of the learning hours are described as workshops.

This is an SCQF Level 11 module and upon successful completion, participants will be awarded 10 credits.

 

Delivery

The module will normally be offered on all Scottish campuses or by Distance Learning.  A full timetable will be published in advance of course commencement.

 

Course presenter

This module will be delivered by Dr Gillian Bruce.

 

Funding

This course may be available on a fully funded basis to some delegates.  Further details, including regarding eligibility, are available under Funding Support.

If you have any questions, please contact us at cpd@uws.ac.uk. 

 

NOTE: This is a university module and upon approval of your application, you will be invited to register and then supported to complete enrolment. To enrol on the university system, the first step involves security set-up using the Microsoft Authenticator app; you will need to ensure that you have a compatible smartphone.

Further information is available at the Student Information Portal.

To access this module via the CPD route, individuals should be ordinarily resident in Scotland.  If you do not meet this criteria, please enquire here.