Seminar Leadership Styles and their Representatives - Q3

Course Content

Why CEO Leadership Matters?

CEOs shape the strategic direction, culture, and performance of some of the world’s most influential companies. Their leadership decisions affect thousands of employees, investors, and stakeholders—and often play out on the global stage. Understanding how CEOs lead, why they succeed (or fail), and what leadership style they adopt provides powerful lessons for anyone aspiring to make a meaningful impact.

By learning from current top CEOs, students will gain a deeper understanding of how leadership plays out at the highest levels of business—and develop sharper instincts for their own leadership growth. These insights are not just theoretical; they will help students begin to build their own leadership identity early in their careers.

What This Course Covers:

This course explores the leadership styles of CEOs in the context of multinational companies. We will examine styles such as charismatic, authentic, and servant leadership, and analyze how today’s CEOs put these approaches into practice—along with the benefits and limitations of each.

A central focus will be on understanding when and why specific leadership styles are more effective, depending on the strategic context. Drawing on both scientific research and public cases, we will critically evaluate the leadership behavior of high-profile CEOs and assess their ability to address different types of business challenges.

By combining rigorous academic frameworks with real-world CEO examples, students will walk away with practical insights into leadership at the top and develop tools to sharpen their own leadership mindset and practice.

Intended Learning Outcomes and Competencies

1. Discipline-specific knowledge and competence:
   Students will learn about the different leadership behaviors that CEOs apply and will discuss the effectiveness of the different leadership styles in various business settings.
   
   
2. Management-specific skills:
   Students will learn that leadership effectiveness does not only depend on the leader behavior, but also on organizational characteristics.
   
   
3. Global business environment:
   Students will discuss the effectiveness of the different leadership styles in the global arena.
   
   
4. Teamwork and responsible leadership:
   Students will discuss the effectiveness of the different leadership styles in teams. Furthermore, responsible leadership will be among the leadership styles to be discussed in class.
   
   
5. Critical thinking and problem-solving skills:
   Students will critically discuss the positive and negative outcomes of the different leadership styles. Furthermore, students will discuss the varying effectiveness of the leadership styles in the face of contextual conditions.
   
   
6. Managerial and entrepreneurial practice:
   Students will elaborate on the different leadership styles and will present a prominent CEO for the respective leadership style. Furthermore, students will discuss the managerial applicability of leadership styles and their respective outcomes in practice.

Instruction Type

For each deliverable, students will be taught – step-by-step – what is expected and how to accomplish the given targets. Thereby, we prepare students conceptually, but also help them manage the process. 

In addition, during the entire class, students will also be mentored by the teaching assistants. We will thus smoothly guide you through the learning process and enable you to perform in class.

This is an in-person course. Attendance is mandatory, as the course is interactive and requires teamwork.

Form of Examination