Becoming a Democratic Leader
In a world increasingly defined by uncertainty and polarization, this course equips you with the tools and frameworks to translate your values into action and become an effective, democratic leader. Through hands-on experiences, high-level guest speakers, and cutting-edge leadership practices, you'll develop the agility to lead in any situation.
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Course Features
Learn how to become a more effective leader
You will learn how to be a more effective, authentic, ethical and inspiring democratic leader. You will learn how to relate to power, build trust, clarify your purpose, use storytelling for leadership, expand your influence, lead an effective team, read the room (group dynamics), and face your fears to grow as a person and as a leader.
Battle-tested framework
This class combines several practice-based and proven frameworks, such as Adaptive Leadership, Community Organizing, Adult Development, Systems Thinking and more.
Learn how to handle uncertainty and how to adapt
We live in volatile times, and being adaptable is the key trait of an effective leader.
Handle power and authority responsibly
Learn how power and authority work, and how to anchor your actions in purpose and values to be more ethical and more effective leader.
Discover how to lead effective teams
Teamwork is essential for anyone who wants to drive change. What does it take to lead a team democratically? How do you facilitate and prepare meetings?
Learn how to meaningfully expand your influence
Building influence and power through trust-building and relationship building is one of the key traits of effective democratic leaders.
Read the room to really understand what is going on
Learn how to understand a group dynamics at a meeting or in a team. How to understand complex systems and relationships between teams and people that affect each-others behaviors.
Take control of who you are becoming
Craft your personal story, become intentional about your identity, become the leader that you know you could be. And help others to do the same too.
Capstone Projects on Social Movements and Democratic Leadership
The Action Team Projects offer students the chance to analyze or organize events related to democracy, allowing them to apply their learning in a practical, impactful way.
Class Pedagogy
This course is highly interactive and experience-based. You won’t just learn about leadership—you’ll practice it. Each session is a workshop where you’ll engage in discussions, simulations, and exercises. You'll work on real-world leadership challenges, individually and in teams. The course is focused on practicality and immediate application of learned.
Action Learning
Each class is a workshop. We will do exercises that will create a very dynamic learning experience.
Interactive Classes
You are teacher too! Student participation is the key, so you will get many chances to speak and act.
Simulations
We will use real-life events and teamwork to recreate real-life dilemmas and pressures. Sometimes we will use imagined scenarios too.
Practical Assignments
The goal is to export learnings outside the classroom into the real world. Students will have opportunities to test out new leadership tools right away! This is a pic of a student-led event about misinformation.
Real Discussions & Engaging Guests
Real discussions where we will disagree, explore alternatives, and go deep. In this picture is a class with guest speaker Leopoldo Lopez.
Work in Teams
You will be assigned to a student team of 4-5 people. Your task will be to explore your leadership challenges and work on collective project.