Master the art of communication, alignment, and buy-in to navigate organizational change and crisis.
Navigating today’s intricate business landscape requires more than just a strong strategic vision; it demands the ability to guide teams through uncertainty, rapid change, and multifaceted challenges. "Leading Through Complexity: Communication, Alignment, and Buy-In" explores the critical interpersonal and organizational dynamics necessary to steer complex initiatives toward success. This course delves into the art of crafting impactful messaging that cuts through organizational noise and establishes deep transparency. It examines foundational strategies for unifying diverse teams, bridging departmental silos, and ensuring that every level of an organization is moving in the exact same direction.
Furthermore, the coursework explores the core drivers of stakeholder engagement, highlighting approaches to overcome natural resistance, cultivate psychological safety, and secure genuine, long-lasting commitment to new directions. By integrating strategic communication frameworks with proven methods for organizational alignment, this comprehensive overview provides leaders with the essential insights needed to transform complex organizational obstacles into clear opportunities for collective achievement.
Motivational & Leadership Speaker
Adam Mendler is a nationally recognized authority on leadership, renowned for his unique ability to deliver perspective-shifting insights shaped by interviewing more than 500 of America’s most successful leaders. The creator and host of the top-rated business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, Adam regularly elicits insights from America's top CEOs, founders, athletes, celebrities, and political and military leaders. A keynote speaker to businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations, Adam has written extensively on business and leadership, having authored more than 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc., and HuffPost. A Los Angeles native and lifelong Angels fan, Adam teaches graduate-level courses on leadership at UCLA, serves on the board of UCLA’s Master of Applied Statistics & Data Science program, is an emeritus member of USC’s Board of Governors, and is an advisor to numerous companies and leaders.
President of the College of Charleston
On November 28, 2018, the Board of Trustees selected Andrew T. Hsu to be the 23rd President of the College of Charleston. He formally took office on May 16, 2019. Before joining the College, Hsu was the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Toledo, a public research university in Ohio with 21,000 students, 220 bachelor's and master's degree programs, and 40 doctoral programs. In this role, Hsu led the university through a strategic planning process and oversaw its implementation. Through a campus-wide effort, the strategic plan implementation resulted in significant progress in student success, research and scholarly activities, and fundraising: the university improved its first-year retention rate by more than 10% and its graduation rate by 5.5%, and research awards and fundraising are both up by 20%. Before becoming provost and executive vice president at Toledo, Hsu served as the dean of engineering at San Jose State University and as the associate vice president for research and the dean of the Graduate School at Wright State University. Throughout his career, Hsu has remained actively engaged in the community. He is currently the chair of the Board of Governors for Rocket Innovation (a Toledo non-profit). He has also served on the Leadership Council of CalCharge (a statewide non-profit organization in California), the Board of Governors of the Edison Materials Technology Center in Dayton (Ohio), and the Board of Governors of the University Clean Energy Alliance of Ohio, and he was appointed by Governor Mitch Daniels as chair of the Indiana Bioproduct Commission. As a faculty member, Hsu exemplifies the faculty-scholar model. He received numerous teaching awards as a professor, maintained a continuously funded research lab for 15 years, and published 98 refereed journal and conference articles. He is a fellow of the American Council on Education (ACE) and is an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Hsu earned his Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1986. He then worked in industry for 11 years with Sverdrup/NASA and Rolls-Royce, where he developed unique industry perspectives and leadership skills, before joining academia in 1997. In his free time, Hsu enjoys tennis, classical music, and spending time with his wife, Rongrong, and four daughters, Carol, Kristie, Jenny, and Emma.
