Course overview
"Leadership for Flourishing" is an online course, combining research on leadership, character and flourishing in an engaging 5-module programme. It is designed to help people across settings exercise leadership where they are, furthering the good of their teams, communities and organisations. While the world is still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, this is a time for our understanding of leadership to break beyond formal positions and structures to a dynamic process that enables people to act courageously for the good of others. This course will enable you to consider the nature and purpose of your leadership; to develop the character needed to lead others in uncertain times; and to meet, with confidence, the challenges of leadership in your own setting.
The programme will introduce the research through reading and interviews with experts from Oxford, Harvard (including Amy Edmondson), the Wharton School of Business at UPenn (including Adam Grant) as well as other universities. The application of this research in practice will be explained and you will be set challenges to build your repertoire of tools for improving wellbeing and, therefore also performance, in your organisation. Each of the five modules includes inspiring stories from leaders around the world, interviews with expert practitioners and academics, case studies, core readings, quizzes, challenges, and reflection exercises.

Course instructors

Dr Ed Brooks
Executive Director of the Oxford Character Project and head of the Global Leadership Initiative.

Emmie Bidston
Co-director of the Wellington Leadership and Coaching Institute, and co-founder of the Young African Leadership Programme.

Dr Matthew Lee
Director of Empirical Research at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University's Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences.

Dr Katy Granville-Chapman
Co-founder of Global Social Leaders, Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellow, Oxford University Department of Education, Deputy Head, founder of the Wellington Leadership and Coaching Institute.
Guest speakers

Prof Adam Grant
The Saul P. Steinberg Professor of Management and Professor of Psychology, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Prof Amy C. Edmondson
Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School.

Kwame Adams
Program Manager, Office of School Transformation, Boston Public Schools

Drew Dudley
Internationally acclaimed leadership speaker, Wall Street Journal bestselling author and the creator of the renowned TED talk “Everyday Leadership".

Mary Daniels
Speaker, Storyteller, Author, and Coach

Prof Mary Gentile
Richard M. Waitzer Bicentennial Professor of Ethics, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia

Andrew Wilkinson
Founder and CEO of Dynamis Adventures. Former Royal Marines Officer, Leader and Adventurer.

Meb Keflezighi
The only athlete in history to win the Boston Marathon, the New York City Marathon & an Olympic medal.

Andrew Perry
Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust