Leadership Skills Concentration

The Leadership Skills concentration within the Management and Global Business department aims to help students to master some of the critical “soft skills” necessary to progress through a successful career. With its focus on courses such as Executive Leadership, Effective Leadership Communications, and Negotiations, students should emerge with a greater understanding of themselves and have built a toolkit for effectively interacting with others.

The department will also offer course-options for this concentration that focus on teamwork, diversity, and issues involved with cross-cultural management. This concentration is especially valuable for students who choose a major in a functional field (e.g., Finance, Supply Chain Management, Marketing, etc.) and then pursue a second concentration in Leadership Skills to help round out their skillsets as they move into internships and jobs.

Learning Goals

  • Students will build their understanding of leadership concepts, processes and behaviors, as well as develop and strengthen their leadership, communication, and negotiation capabilities.
  • Students will have an understanding of the basic skills involved in leading and influencing others, whether that be from above, laterally, or even the need to lead those in positions of greater power, in order to meet organizational goals.
  • Students will improve their communication skills, including understanding (and practicing) the need for streamlined communication in both spoken and written language.
  • Students will round out their technical skills with a better understanding of how to most effectively work with other people across settings.

The Concentration's Structure

RBS students pursuing the Leadership Skills concentration will take 3 courses (9 credits). The courses include one requirement (3 credits), one elective that must be chosen from a list of two (3 credits or 6 credits if both are taken), and if needed, one extra elective from a list of courses offered by the department (0-3 credits).

Required Courses

Course # Title Cr
33:620:410 Executive Leadership 3

Electives

Select at least one of the following two (may select both).

Course # Title Cr
33:620:362 Effective Leadership Communications 3
33:620:350 Negotiations 3

If needed, select one of the following:

Course # Title Cr
33:620:320 Cross-Cultural Management* 3
33:620:370 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Management and Organizations 3
33:620:430 Team Building and Group Processes* 3
33:620:330 Women Leading in Business** 3

*Note: Prerequisite Introduction to Management (33:620:301)

**Note: Prerequisite Introduction to Management (33:620:301) plus Junior or Senior status

*You may not declare a Leadership Skills concentration if you have a Leadership and Management major.

**Please note that you cannot double count or overlap ANY courses between RBS majors and RBS certificates. All certificate courses must be on top of any courses required for a given RBS major. DEGREE NAVIGATOR WILL NOT REMOVE THE "DOUBLE-COUNTING" COURSES, SO STUDENTS WILL NEED TO MONITOR THIS ON THEIR OWN.***