If you’re ready to elevate your leadership skills in the evolving field of human resources, our Human Resources Leadership course is a perfect fit for you. This new course will explore the multifaceted role of HR professionals as leaders.
Instructor Sharonda Bishop will specifically focus on how leaders are developed, leadership theories, power, and leadership, and how leadership is interwoven with human resource responsibilities.
We asked Bishop four questions about the class, what students can expect to learn, and what she’s most excited about teaching the class.
1. What can students expect to learn in the class?
Students will learn about leadership through a human resource lens. Human Resource professionals have an opportunity to influence their work environment, whether through informal or formal authority. In this class, we’ll discuss how leaders are developed, the impact of power and influence, and how to weave our knowledge into the decision-making process in our organizations, especially those decisions that impact people.
2.What skills will they gain during the class?
I am an educator and researcher and love the ‘history’ behind why we do what we do. In this class, we’ll discuss both traditional and contemporary concepts and theories of leadership, as well as compare and contrast the theories to what we’ve seen in our work environment. Additionally, we’ll discuss the skills that make human resource professionals (or anyone really) successful working with individuals (influencing others), teams of people (overseeing direct reports), and as a business partner (providing expert advice to levels of management). Lastly, we’ll discuss high-impact leadership practices that are particularly successful for human resource professionals, including project management, holding others accountable, and influencing change and innovation.
3. What are you most looking forward to about teaching this course?
Honestly everything! The students that I have in the class will not all have a manager or leader background. I aim to make this class just as applicable to their experience as it might be to someone in the class who is currently an HR executive. I love the formal and informal ways HR influences the employee experience at work. I hope this class will excite students about immediately using their refreshed or newfound skills at work.
4. How does this program help prepare students for leadership roles in Human Resources?
Those students who are currently or want to be in leadership roles in the future will be able to do a lot of peer-to-peer sharing. We’ll have an opportunity to learn from each other! Although none of our experiences are the same, and we sometimes need to learn the lessons of ‘hard knocks,’ it is also refreshing to get perspectives from ‘hundreds of years of research’ that tell us there are lots of best practices that we can use more of to make our workplaces better for employees to thrive.
