Real-World Leadership: Lessons You Won't Find in a Textbook

You can learn the principles of leadership from a textbook.  But textbooks rarely tell you what to do when your carefully developed plan fails, when an employee is struggling, when a merger creates resistance, or when everyone in the room suddenly turns to you for an answer.

That's where this course begins.  This isn't a collection of leadership theories. It's a collection of real stories—and the lessons I took from them.  Some involve decisions that changed the direction of my career. Others involve mentors who changed the way I thought about leadership. There were crises, mistakes, difficult employees, acquisitions, unexpected opportunities, and moments when I simply didn't know what to do.

Not everything worked. And that's part of the point.  Real leadership is messy. People are unpredictable. Plans change. And sometimes the lesson doesn't become obvious until years later.  This course explores what happens when the leadership principles we learn meet the realities of actually leading people.

WHO IS THIS COURSE FOR?

This course is for anyone who leads people—or expects to.  You may be a new manager, an experienced executive, a project or product leader, or someone preparing for your first leadership opportunity.  You won't find formulas for becoming a “great leader.” Instead, you'll encounter real situations and be encouraged to think about a simple question:  What would I have done?

WHY LEARN THIS FROM ME?

I've had the unusual opportunity to experience leadership from two very different perspectives.  I've spent much of my career doing it—leading teams, managing organizations, developing people, handling difficult situations, and eventually serving as president of a healthcare technology company.

And I've spent many years teaching it to graduate business students.

That combination has taught me something important: knowing the principles and applying them when real people and real consequences are involved can be very different things.  My teaching style is pragmatic. I'll tell you what happened, what I did, what worked, what didn't—and what I learned.  These aren't case studies about someone else's company.

They're the scars, surprises, mistakes, and lessons from my own journey. And if one of those stories helps you handle a difficult leadership moment a little better, this course will have accomplished exactly what I intended.