Focuses on the practice of communication for first-year MBA
students’ success in their academic and professional careers.
Specific communication skills will be practiced within the
following contexts: public speaking/presentations, managing
conflict, and business writing. Instructor and peer coaching
will be extensively utilized.
Athena Title
Strategy Ex and Career Success
Non-Traditional Format
The course may be taught half semester or full semester.
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
This course is designed to help each student – regardless of
skill level or prior knowledge – acquire and improve
communication skills over his/her academic and work careers.
Research strongly supports a positive correlation between adept
MBA student communication behaviors (clear, concise, persuasive,
inclusive language), top skills sought by employers, and quality
job offers. Moreover, employers consistently report that
communication skills are lacking in a significant number of MBA
hires across the country.
The goal of this course is to assist each student in the
development of his/her communication skills, including
opportunities that call for public speaking, resolving
interpersonal conflict, and crafting effective written
communiques.
To reach these goals, the course is structured to allow
maximum skills practice (presentations, role-plays, writing,
and critiquing) with real-time feedback and peer coaching to
enhance both student engagement and continuous skills
improvement.
Topical Outline
Topics for oral presentations
-Audience analysis
-Message content and design
-Preparing for resistance
-Storytelling with data; importance of logic and emotional balance for call to action
-Choosing media
-Thinking like a designer
-Practice
Topics for Conflict Management
-Conflict as bacteria: We need it; how to tell the productive from the unproductive
-Various conflict “styles” as tendencies or habits
-How to discern a potentially “crucial” or critical conflict that needs attention, intervention – and who owns it
-Mastering the power of dialogue
Topics for Business Writing
-Why are you writing? (Importance of/when to use various communication channels)
-Using the MACJ model for reports – madman, architect, carpenter, judge
-5 C’s: clarity, conciseness, continuity, completeness, clean (error-free) – these work together as career accelerators or limiters
-How to organize material
-Tone/voice – your writing is part of your identity
-Getting cohort feedback in real time
