Teaching leadership critically to MBAs experiences from heaven and hell

Abstract

In 2004, after a year's leave, I started teaching a new Masters of Business Administration (MBA) subject called 'Leadership and Change' in what I hoped was a more critical way. In this article I explore my experiences of launching two versions of this subject- one in a full-time MBA and one in an Executive MBA programme. I describe what I did and what happened, including the obstacles encountered-in myself and the structures around me-how it felt and how students and the institution responded. By working experientially as well as critically, I aimed to create a space in which students could challenge their ways of thinking about leadership and all of us could experiment with different ways o..