The teaching of this course is dedicated to Granville H. "Pete" Jones, emeritus professor of the Carnegie Mellon English Department. Professor Jones died of cancer in Laguna Beach, California on May 17, 1998. As my freshman English Lit. instructor in 1960, he showed me the thrill of reading the likes of Hemingway, Huxley, Salinger, Kerouac, Nabokov, and even Joyce. In the midst of his English Composition course the next semester I became inspired to write and to teach. He generously and voluntarily expanded our teacher-student relationship to one of mentor-mentored. Thankfully, in later years I had the opportunity to tell him and even to show him what his teaching and counsel meant to me.

The age-old question: Are leaders made or are they born? If the answer is "100% born" then it makes no sense for you to take this course or for me to teach it. If the answer is "100% made" then my observations since teaching my first higher education leadership course in 1968 and my consulting experience over that same period of time have totally misled me. Because, you see, I have encountered managers who showed me they weren’t cut out to be leaders, regardless of the quality of leadership training and coaching made available to them.

So what’s the answer to the question? No one knows for sure, but most people have an opinion. Here is mine. Probably every student in Tepper is cognitively capable of becoming a great leader. The ideas of leadership are not that difficult to grasp. But not every student in Tepper is emotionally capable of becoming a great leader. That’s because the actions required of great leaders aren’t consistent with who some people are. The ones that have what it takes tend to display qualities like these:

1. They believe that they are not nearly the leader today that they will become tomorrow. In other words, they are embarked on a leadership learning curve that will never end. They believe they have a lot to learn.

2. They are open to criticism and to evidence that currently they may be shooting themselves in the foot as leaders. They have that powerful emotion of denial under control so that they can learn from their mishaps.

3. They believe that "how" is as important as "what" and that process trumps content. They understand that profit is not a goal, but rather an outcome of doing the right things in the right way.

4. They have enough compassion in their soul to want to serve the people they lead so as to incite their ownership of team goals.

5. They can summon enough courage and even toughness in their makeup to hold people accountable for their performance.

6. They are principled and ethical. The only rules they break are stifling out-dated conventions. They take the actions they think best even in the face of stiff opposition or political unpopularity. They believe in, and operate out of, a core of moral truth.

These six qualities of great leaders cannot be taught. If you do not possess them, you may have to return to the womb or be transfigured by some number of life-changing epiphanies in order for you to "get it." It asks too much of a seven-week university curriculum to bear the brunt of such a developmental challenge. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take this course. It does mean that your presence will challenge me (that’s fine) and possibly frustrate you (that may be equally fine).

If these qualities are not in your fiber, and you’re proud of it, you will do many people a favor¾ particularly yourself¾ by quickly moving out of the stream of corporate leadership. There are many satisfying professional pursuits that can tap your other positive qualities. I know of attorneys, public accounting partners, and high-level engineers without leadership qualities who manage to achieve important goals. Yes, they leave bodies behind in their wake, but the numbers aren’t nearly as high as if these people were practice directors, managing partners, team leaders, controllers, lead engineers, division heads, or CEOs.

Our relationship for seven weeks will be like that which I strike with the leaders who hire me to coach them. In seven weeks you will take the same steps that these corporate execs go through in six months to one year. In that time you will learn how to surmount the "17½ Greatest Challenges to Corporate Leaders."

There are no textbooks for this course. The course packet is all you will need to purchase. Why no books? My job is to show you how to turn what you’ve already learned, already experienced, and already practiced into better leadership. In addition, the route to leadership excellence is as much a process of unlearning bad habits as it is acquiring new knowledge. The best practices you may still need to acquire are adequately presented in the course packet and will emerge from our class discussions.

98-100 = A+; 93-97 = A; 90-92 = A-; 88-89 = B+; 83-87 = B; 80-82 = B-; 78-79 = C+; 73-77 = C; 70-72 = C-; 0-69 = F. Students opting for pass/fail will earn 79 points to pass.

You’ve held at least one job in your life, and so you understand accountability. Some of you learned about accountability at home. In this course we take advantage of that learning. By registering in this course you agree to adhere to the "rules of the road" established in this course syllabus and in your course packet. In my desire to be fair to you and your colleagues, I am not likely to grant requests for exceptions or respond positively to pleas made necessary by your failure to read or comply with course provisions.

I am available to you via e-mail and by telephone. Please check regularly for messages from me as I may communicate essential course information as late as Noon the day of our class. The special email address for this class is cmu@samdeep.com. If for any reason that server is down, resort to sdeep05@aol.com. Call me at 412-487-2379 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. any day of the week. (If I don’t answer, my cell phone is 412-310-5492.) My Web site is located at www.samdeep.com. I enjoy meeting individually with students for any help you may need with the course or for special leadership coaching you may desire. It will be up to you to initiate these meetings by seeing me in class or contacting me via email or telephone.

Learning happens more deeply when you're having fun. And in this course becoming the best leader you can be far outweighs any possible usefulness of a good grade. So come ready to have fun and learn.

Be certain that your name and email address appear on each assignment you submit. All page references are to your course packet. All developmental assignments are worth 10 points. Individual component values are in [ ]. The bibliography assignments are worth a total of 21 points (7 points each). The final examination is worth 29 points. Submit assignments to cmu@samdeep.com.

Describe briefly (20-50 words) what you want people to say about you as a leader. [4]

Complete the six-point exercise on page 22. [6]

Create your code of conduct (page 33-35). [5]

Which three of the thirty actions of a servant leader are most evident in your leadership style? (Pages 53-55) Which three are least evident? Explain why each of the three least evident is that way. [5]

In terms of the material on pages 56-67, describe the presence or absence of accountability in an organization you’re familiar with. Focus on the specific reasons that exist for why accountability is lacking or present. Use 200 words or less. [5]

In a work setting familiar to you, how would you rate the level of teamwork on a scale of 0-10? If you scored it as an 8 or higher, how do you account for it being that high? If you scored it as a 7 or lower, what strategy (ies) (pages 68-78) would you apply to that situation? [5]

In your experience what is the greatest mistake that corporate leaders make in implementing change? Give an example of that shortcoming from your experience. [5]

Why do you think it is that corporate leaders have such a difficult time dealing forthrightly with interpersonal conflict in its various manifestations? If you scored yourself as a 4 or higher on page 93, explain how you have come to be an effective conflict resolver. If you scored yourself as a 3 or lower, what did you write in the any or all of the three boxes? [5]

Fifth and Final Developmental Assignment: Due February 21

No matter how high you scored yourself on page 97, everyone has something they can do to communicate better. What "start(s)" and/or "stop(s)" will make you a more influential communicator? [4]

In your experience, which of the five reasons on page 106 do you think is the most powerful contributor to unethical behavior? Have you experienced a powerful reason that is missing from the list? If I were to provide the students of "Meeting the Challenges of Corporate Leadership" with an ethical code, which five most important requirements do you think should be on that list? [6]

Review three journal articles or books, published in 2000-2005, that you believe provide good answers to any three of the 17½ challenges in the course outline. Your submissions should be as follows for each article or book: (1) provide an overall and original (in your own words) review of the piece in 75 to 150 words; (2) write out the challenge that the article or book addresses; (3) use 50 to 100 words to describe in specific terms what insights the article or book provides to help leaders meet the challenge.

Note 1: Any plagiarized reviews will earn you a zero on all three bibliography assignments. Note 2: You may submit these assignments any time on or before January. 28, 2005; however I strongly suggest submitting at least one early in the Mini to make certain you’re on target with your approach. Note 3: A few journals where you can expect to find relevant articles include California Management Review, Harvard Business Review, Organizational Dynamics, and Sloan Management Review. A few authors who have written good books in leadership include Bernard Bass, Warren Bennis, Robert Blake, Ken Blanchard, Lee Bolman, James Collins, Max DePree, Terrance Deal, Roger Fisher, Daniel Goleman, John Kotter, James Kouzes, John Maxwell, Tom Peters, and Michael Porter. Naturally, the Internet is an abundant source for you. For example: http://www.fastcompany.com/articles/2002/05/rtsd_quotes.html

A template for the final take-home examination will be emailed to you on or about February 24. It will be discussed in class on February 28 and due on March 3. Your assignment will be to demonstrate how you have connected personally to the course by constructing comprehensive plans to improve the effectiveness of your corporate leadership. If you have been attending class, reading the course packet, putting effort into the course packet and bibliography assignments, and reflecting on the meaning of what we have been covering for yourself as a leader, no cramming or last-minute scrambling will be needed or even make sense in order for you to submit a solid final. The greatest value of the final assignment will not be the points you earn on it¾ although I know you will care about that¾ but the impact it has on your future as a leader.

You will also be asked to justify the relative importance you place on the 17½ challenges.