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Transformational Leadership: How Leaders Change Teams, Companies, and Organizations

Season 1
Discover the secrets behind great leadership and learn how to apply them in your own career with this 24-lecture course that uses case studies to explain the three fundamental activities at which the best leaders excel.
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Episodes

  1. S1 E1 - The Challenge
    October 31, 2023
    34min
    TV-PG
    Begin the course with a look at the need for stronger, more transformational leaders in today's world. Then, delve deeper into the ideas and principles behind situational leadership, adaptive leadership, and other approaches to this powerful responsibility and the ways they can shape and define an organization's success.
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  2. S1 E2 - Portrait of a Transformation
    October 31, 2023
    31min
    TV-PG
    Using legendary CEO Jack Welch's tenure at GE during the 1980s and 1990s as a case study, discover the true characteristics of a leader and gain a firm definition of effective leadership. Professor Roberto also debunks some myths about leadership and illustrates the important differences between a leader and a manager.
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  3. S1 E3 - Do Great Leaders Share the Same Traits?
    October 31, 2023
    28min
    TV-PG
    In the first of two lectures on leadership models, investigate three prominent perspectives of thought on leadership: the traits perspective (which focuses on individual attributes), the behavioral perspective (which deals with five key personality traits), and the power-influence perspective (which focuses on the amount and type of power a leader possesses).
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  4. S1 E4 - How Much Does Context Matter?
    October 31, 2023
    31min
    TV-PG
    Continue looking at other major theories of leadership that have emerged in recent years, each of which argues that the effectiveness of particular leadership approaches depends on contextual variables. The four you explore here are the Least Preferred Coworker model, the path-goal theory, the situational leadership theory, and the normative decision theory.
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  5. S1 E5 - Charismatic and Transformational Leadership
    October 31, 2023
    31min
    TV-PG
    What makes a leader charismatic? How does charisma define transformational and transactional leaders? Is it possible that a leader can have too much charisma? These are just a few of the many questions you'll find answers to as Professor Roberto unpacks the role of charisma in effective leadership.
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  6. S1 E6 - Resistance and Reactions to Change
    October 31, 2023
    30min
    TV-PG
    It takes a successful leader to make others embrace change. Here, grasp the typical behavioral responses to change, learn how to provide others with a sense of control during moments of change, discover how to avoid the dangers of threat rigidity, and see the importance of reframing changes as powerful opportunities.
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  7. S1 E7 - Phases of Transformation
    October 31, 2023
    32min
    TV-PG
    Now investigate the actual process of change itself. After a brief look at the "unfreeze-change-freeze" model of change, walk through a powerful eight-step model for developing change, from establishing a sense of urgency (step 1) to using multiple vehicles to communicate your vision (step 4) to institutionalizing your new approaches (step 8).
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  8. S1 E8 - Harnessing Emotion
    October 31, 2023
    31min
    TV-PG
    Direct the rider. Motivate the elephant. Shape the path. What do these three actions have to do with the change process? Find out as you look closer at experiments and case studies that demonstrate the inextricably linked roles of reason and emotion in creating and sustaining change.
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  9. S1 E9 - Making Change Stick
    October 31, 2023
    31min
    TV-PG
    In this lecture, discover the art and craft of making change last. Learn about the four key processes by which you can avoid the "flavor of the month" syndrome (chartering, learning, mobilizing, and realigning) and six principles for getting ideas to stick (simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions, and stories).
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  10. S1 E10 - Extrinsic Motivation and Reward
    October 31, 2023
    31min
    TV-PG
    Begin your focus on critical skills and capabilities of solid leadership by investigating the subject of extrinsic motivation, in which rewards and punishments (including compensation) drive behavioral change in a team or organization. Then, look closer at the limitations of external reward systems as well as guidelines for improving them.
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  11. S1 E11 - Beyond Money - Intrinsic Motivation
    October 31, 2023
    32min
    TV-PG
    Switch now to key concepts and insights in intrinsic motivation, which transformational leaders can tap into as a means of enhancing their teams' performance. Central to this lecture is an intriguing case study involving two teams working on a software project that illustrates the merits of working for intrinsic goals.
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  12. S1 E12 - Power - Getting It and Keeping It
    October 31, 2023
    31min
    TV-PG
    What are a leader's sources of power, and how is it acquired (and lost)? How is a leader's power different from his or her authority? And what are the dangers and risks of too much power? These are three central questions about power and leadership that Professor Roberto answers here.
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  13. S1 E13 - Key Levers of Power
    October 31, 2023
    32min
    TV-PG
    We've all dealt with office politics at one point or another in our careers. Discover the secrets of successfully navigating organizational politics in order to make change happen. Some of the strategies whose pros and cons you examine are framing, timing, information and analysis, structural change, and symbolic action.
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  14. S1 E14 - Influence - Tools of Persuasion
    October 31, 2023
    33min
    TV-PG
    Effective leaders should never rely solely on formal authority; they should also be able to persuade. In the first of two lectures on persuasion, focus on two "weapons of influence": authority (the necessity for people to obey authority figures and roles) and commitment (behaving in a manner consistent with prior actions).
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  15. S1 E15 - Give and Take
    October 31, 2023
    33min
    TV-PG
    Turn now to four more "weapons of influence" you can use to persuade. The success of reciprocation, social proof, the liking principle, and scarcity are rooted in, respectively, our need to repay in kind, our looking to others to determine what's appropriate, our duty to authority, and our fear of fewer opportunities.
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  16. S1 E16 - Negotiating as a Way of Life
    October 31, 2023
    32min
    TV-PG
    If you want to be a transformational leader, you have to know how to negotiate. In the first of two lectures on negotiation, investigate this indispensable skill's roots in theoretical games such as the Prisoner's Dilemma. Also, learn which negotiating strategies can produce the best results.
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  17. S1 E17 - Avoiding the Zero-Sum Game
    October 31, 2023
    31min
    TV-PG
    Discover value-claiming and value-creating behaviors that are integral to the negotiation process. Your focus here is on unpacking Roger Fisher and William Ury's influential model for dispute resolution, which calls for a focus on interests over positions, an insistence on objective criteria, and much more.
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  18. S1 E18 - Building and Leading Teams
    October 31, 2023
    31min
    TV-PG
    Professor Roberto shows you how to optimize the strength and productivity of your team. Explore the benefits (and potential limitations) of the five conditions for designing and leading a team: stability, a compelling shared direction, an enabling structure, a supporting organizational context, and expert coaching.
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  19. S1 E19 - Guiding Teams as They Evolve
    October 31, 2023
    33min
    TV-PG
    Team design is important, but good leaders also need to help teams develop and dodge conflict. Here, analyze the three key aspects of process leadership: creating a solid process for team development, dealing with "fault lines" that can potentially fragment your team, and combating groupthink.
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  20. S1 E20 - Observation and Organizational Learning
    October 31, 2023
    32min
    TV-PG
    One of the most fundamental processes of change that any leader must master: learning. Your focus in this lecture is on important strategies of intelligence gathering. Explore the problems of pitfalls such as leading questions, group dynamics, and the unconscious mind; and learn how to hone your powers of observation.
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  21. S1 E21 - Deliberate Practice and Experiment
    October 31, 2023
    33min
    TV-PG
    Continue studying the importance of organizational learning with this insightful lecture on experience and experimentation. For the former concept, learn tips and strategies for improving after-action reviews; for the latter, learn how to best evaluate and learn from exploratory and hypothesis-testing experiments—especially failed ones.
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  22. S1 E22 - Stimulating Creativity
    October 31, 2023
    32min
    TV-PG
    Another essential dimension of transformational leadership—the kind that makes you stand out from the competition—is creativity. Here, Professor Roberto dispels six myths about creativity, introduces you to the concepts of "blue ocean" opportunities and group flow, reveals the seven characteristics of effective creative collaboration, and more.
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  23. S1 E23 - Leading Innovation
    October 31, 2023
    31min
    TV-PG
    Delve into the secret benefits of open innovation and transparent research and development. Using case studies from Linux and Proctor & Gamble, discover how you as a leader can tap into the power of innovation rooted in connections that extend beyond the boundaries of your team or firm.
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  24. S1 E24 - Developing Leaders
    October 31, 2023
    33min
    TV-PG
    Great leaders don't just lead—they develop tomorrow's leaders. Why is it important for organizations to grow their own leaders? What does effective leadership development entail? How have great companies used deliberate practice—practicing toward specific performance improvement goals—to mold future leaders? How can you do the same?
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Subtitles
None available
Producers
The Great Courses
Cast
Michael Roberto
Studio
The Great Courses
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