As organizations move away from a “command and control” model to a more “cultivate and coordinate” model, executives can no longer rely on old ways of thinking about leadership strategies.

This course is built around MIT's unique Distributed Leadership Model―an innovative and impactful approach to executive leadership that lies at the core of leadership development at MIT, and the result of an intensive, four-year research project at the MIT Leadership Center to identify more effective strategies for leading in a networked economy. Tested in diverse, real-world settings, the model allows managers to succeed as leaders by being flexible and adaptive in new and unexpected ways through the application of the 4-Cap+ Leadership Framework. 

Developed by Faculty Director Deborah Ancona and her colleagues at MIT, the 4-CAPS+ Leadership Framework provides key insights into the skills required for effective leadership and makes it possible to harness, align, and leverage the leadership capabilities that exist throughout an organization. It also explores how leaders can understand different situations, build relationships, create a compelling vision for a business, enhance credibility, and invent processes to achieve that vision and respond to change.

This course will help leaders at every level drive innovation, maximize team performance, and develop the personal leadership skills you need to succeed in today’s complex world of fast-paced, dramatic change.

Participants will:

• Learn about their own leadership signature and identify those of other leaders
• Learn a new model of leadership and teams and apply the models to themselves and the case of a major transformation
• Engage in group and paired exercises to practice new leadership capabilities
• Plan changes to their leadership development
• Participate in a x360 leadership development survey following a private 90-minute coaching session with world-class MIT Sloan executive coaches upon program completion.
• Earn a certificate of completion from the MIT Sloan School of Management upon successful completion of the course. This course may also count toward MIT Sloan Executive Certificate requirements.

The face of management is changing. Organizations are becoming less hierarchical in favor of collaborative and distributed leadership cultures. The old model of “command and control” no longer fits. Today’s leaders must be agile, innovative, and able to adopt ideas from all levels of the organization. They must also know their strengths and understand their weaknesses; only leaders who accept themselves as incomplete are able to compensate for their missing skills by relying on others. Capable of cultivating and coordinating across their organization, these self-aware leaders are committed to continuous improvement—of themselves and of others.

In order to develop deeper self-awareness and a clearer understanding of one's leadership capabilities after being exposed to MIT’s 4-CAPS+ Leadership Framework during Transforming Your Leadership Strategy with Professor Deborah Ancona, participants have the opportunity to take the MIT x360 Leadership Development Survey and debrief the assessment with an Executive Coach. 

True to MIT’s “Mind and Hand” motto, our approach to individualized development combines an executive coaching session with a leadership assessment tool based on MIT research and frameworks. The coaching package includes:

• The x360 Leadership Development Survey, which includes observer feedback and a personal assessment of leadership capabilities to help you understand your current impact
• One private 90-minute coaching sessions with world-class MIT Sloan executive coaches

In the private coaching session, participants will understand and process their x360 with their coach (90 minutes) and set leadership development goals

We do not recommend this course if you have already completed Leadership in an Exponentially Changing World, unless you are seeking a refresher of the content.