Course Description
This course presents values-centered leadership as an emerging model of leadership in the 21st Century. Students will learn foundational theory and study examples of values-centered leaders in an attempt not only to understand it, but also to internalize it. Through reading, critical reflection, study, and class presentations by fellow students and the instructor, students will be better able to be values-centered leaders and to call forth this kind of leadership in others. Students will engage in a cooperative learning model.
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
-Mary Oliver
DePaul University is part of the living legacy of Vincent de Paul, who died in France in 1660. Among his accomplishments, Vincent created the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians), helped to establish the Catholic religious order of women known as the Daughters of Charity, and an international lay organization known as the Ladies of Charity. In St. Vincent's lifetime alone, these organizations met the spiritual and physical needs of hundreds of thousands of people.
What will your leadership legacy be?
This course will help you begin to answer that question by providing you with an opportunity to not only learn about values-centered leadership, but how to apply your learnings to your own leadership development so you can better focus your time and energy on what you already do or hope to do in your career.
What are positive values? How do we learn them? How do we lead from them? How can they sustain you as an effective, ethical leader, making a difference with and among those you serve?
We will explore these additional questions through this course in our readings and online conversations. Most of us initially learned our values from our parents and grandparents. Traditionally, many families drew upon the teachings of a religion as a resource for learning positive values.
What resources for positive values might we draw upon in an increasingly "secular" American society and within a global context? How can we talk about values in the workplace without bringing religion into the conversation?
We will address these questions as well through our readings, and by sharing stories from our own life and work experiences.