Build on the leadership foundation established in the core curriculum by deepening your expertise through a focused set of leadership electives. The Leadership concentration allows you to customize your academic experience around topics such as leading teams, driving change, and making sound decisions in complex organizational environments.
Core Leadership Courses
Leadership Development: Team & Individual Performance
This foundational experience helps MBA students develop the self-awareness and interpersonal skills essential for success in business school and beyond. Led by Goizueta Business School faculty, the program combines interactive workshops, team challenges, and personal reflection to strengthen leadership effectiveness at both the individual and team levels. Participants will explore key principles of collaboration, communication, and adaptive leadership, gaining practical tools to enhance performance and contribute meaningfully to the Goizueta community from day one.
Leading Organizations & Strategy
Leading Organizations and Strategy focuses on the job, viewpoint, and skills of the general manager of a firm in diagnosing what is critical in business situations and in finding realistic solutions to strategic and organizational problems. We will examine issues central to the long- and short-term competitive position of the company. This class will introduce you to crucial strategic and organizational skills, all of which will have a substantial impact upon organizational profitability and your own successful career.
Principled Leadership
Students will conduct research and discussion on different styles of leadership while engaging with veterans who have successfully made the transition from leading in the military to being organizational leaders in the business world. They will do extensive reading about business leaders to examine successes, failures, and do a deep dive into examining their own leadership style; incorporating self-assessment data and develop an individualized personal development plan to carry them through their transition and into the next phase of their careers. The fundamental purpose of the course is to assist each veteran student in determining the path on how to become the business leader they aspire to be as.
Elective Leadership Courses
Coaching & Team Performance
This course is designed to enhance the understanding of how to be a more effective team member and peer leader; enhance the understanding of the characteristics of a high performing MBA team and how to identify dysfunctions of a team; provide emphasis on how to give and receive feedback; learn how to assess the performance of a team; and learn how to use feedback by being coached by a 2nd Year MBA Leadership Coaching Fellow on your team and the individual performance on your MBA team.
Leading & Managing Change
This course will address the forces that drive organizations to change; examines impediments to organizational change as well as those strategies for making organizational change more effective. The emphasis will be on planning, managing, evaluating, and surviving organizational change, with application to emerging business issues, including: knowledge management, "learning organizations," network management and organizational implications of new technologies and the internet.
Leadership Development Fellows
This elective course enhances leadership and coaching abilities in second-year, Full-Time, and one-year MBA students. The course aims to develop essential leadership skills through a structured program integrating coaching, team leadership, facilitative leadership, and strategic leadership principles. Students will engage in practical exercises such as coaching individuals and teams, conducting team observations, and taking leadership assessments. Students will receive individualized executive coaching, too.
The course encourages reflection on personal leadership growth while equipping students with the tools to inspire others, influence decision-making, and drive positive organizational impact. By participating in this course, students will deepen their understanding of and improve their leadership skills. This course is invaluable for students seeking to advance their careers by developing leadership styles that influence, empower, and engage others, driving long-term success in dynamic business settings.
Leadership Capstone
This course serves as the capstone component for the 'Certificate of Advanced Leadership' and is open to students who seek a deeper dive on the topic of leadership. Students will conduct field research; engage with current executive organizational leaders in various settings regarding their leadership challenges and lessons learned; do extensive reading about leaders and leadership, past and present; analyze the principal themes from their self-assessment data, and develop an individualized professional development plan to carry them into the next phase of their careers.