Master of Science in Executive Leadership

Offered by the University of San Diego’s School of Business Administration in alliance with the Ken Blanchard Companies, the MSEL degree focuses on the combination of leadership styles, skills, support sciences, and strategies. The Mission of the Master of Science in Executive Leadership (MSEL) program is to develop and inspire leaders who will transform their organizations and our world through service with compassion and integrity. The degree curriculum facilitates the development and mastery of key intrapersonal, interpersonal and organizational skills in real-world contexts to allow for maximum personal and organizational benefit.

The MSEL program objectives are designed to:

• Foster critical thinking and analytical skills needed to effect self and organizational change;
• Facilitate behavioral change in self and others through self-knowledge, cultural sensitivity, and team dynamics;
• Promote demonstrable skills for effective, values-based leadership;
• Develop a breadth of leadership skills in a both a profit and not-for-profit organizations; and,
• Assure the highest quality of peer interaction and a robust learning community.
  

This integration of the key elements of leadership provides graduates with an interdisciplinary framework of fundamental business knowledge including customers and markets, financial management, financial controls, and organizational strategy. However, as a specialized master degree program, the emphasis is on understanding and developing skills in various leadership contexts. This program satisfies those who seek a personal development experience that emphasizes the leadership functions of motivating and developing people and organizations over the administrative responsibilities of maximizing work-unit efficiencies or technical elegance.

Designed around an executive education learning model, MSEL encourages executive participants to learn from one another by sharing diverse perspectives and problem solving strategies in an environment that fosters creativity and innovation. Executive-level participants engage in an applied-learning curriculum co-facilitated by the expert authors, theorists, and business leaders drawn from the School of Business Administration faculty, The Ken Blanchard Companies instructors, and business executives.

A typical candidate for the MSEL program has at least five years experience as a professional and is currently serving in a position of leadership. He or she wants to learn how to more systematically leverage the leadership experience into accelerated personal and organizational growth. Because the program presents classroom lessons that are required to be put into practice, all students should expect to continue to work in leadership roles throughout the duration of the program.

Students enroll in the MSEL program as either an alternative or complement to the traditional MBA education. Their educational focus is to enhance their leadership skills to allow them to be more effective as leaders in their organizations. The program attracts students who want the combination of leadership style, skills, and strategies, and the harder sciences of business from a leadership perspective.

Backgrounds of past students include the CEO of a publicly-traded company, several CEO’s of private companies, many C-level leaders, and other managers who have leadership responsibility in their current position and show the potential for increasing their leadership roles in their organizations. About 90 percent of all students are from the southern California area, with the remaining from outside the area which requires commuting to the classes. Among the organizations represented by MSEL graduates are WD-40, Jack-in-the Box, Gen-Probe, Rancho Santa Fe Technologies, ResMed, Solar Turbines, Pfizer, and others.

Admission Requirements

MSEL candidates have typically held positions of responsibility including chairman, CEO, president, vice president, director, and manager. Accelerating personal growth is often a primary objective. As the first criteria for admission, candidates are expected to have a set of diversified leadership experiences.

• Five or more years in a professional capacity within an organization;
  
• Currently serving in a leadership or management position; and,
  
• Expects to continue to serve as a leader within an organization throughout the program.

Additional screening is typical of that found for entry into most business graduate degree programs – the assessment of academic competence.

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university;
  
• Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) or an equivalent Professional Work Product prepared by the candidate;
  
• Letters of recommendation from the applicant’s supervisor, a colleague and a direct report; and,
  
• Essay explaining why the applicant is interested in the MSEL program and how the degree program will further the applicant’s personal and professional goals.
  

Leaders and managers who are interested in this program should request a copy of the application from the MSEL Program Office at (619) 260-4828 or download the application at www.business.sandiego.edu/MSEL

MSEL Courses and Seminars

Curriculum Overview

This cohort-based program requires all students to progress together through a series of 19 specified courses over a 22-month period. Classes meet one weekend a month for twenty-two months with 2 one-week intensive sessions at the beginning and middle of the curriculum. In this manner, MSEL delivers not only an AACSB/WASC accredited graduate business degree, but lifelong friendships and a valuable business network. The scheduling format of the courses – one weekend per month (all day Friday and Saturday and half-day Sunday) with two full-week courses – allows students to fulfill their work responsibilities while still pursuing their degree. The following is a tentative order of the MSEL courses, all required:

MSEL 520	Preparing for Leadership: Self-Appraisal and Analysis
MSEL 521	Optimizing Individual Learning
MSEL 522	Leadership, Power & Politics
MSEL 529	Leadership in a Team Context
MSEL 524	Communicating Your Leadership Point-of-View
MSEL 525	Decision Making
MSEL 526	Succession Planning & Talent Management
MSEL 527	Partnering for Performance Using SL II®
MSEL 523	Ethics in the Workplace
MSEL 528	Negotiations & Problem Solving
MSEL 530	Leadership in a Global Context
MSEL 535	Finance & Accounting for Organizational Leadership
MSEL 536	Corporate Governance
MSEL 531	Leading Change
MSEL 532	Designing Organizational Culture: Values & Alignment
MSEL 534	Marketing Strategy, Structure & Processes
MSEL 533	Innovation & Organizational Learning
MSEL 537	Executing Global Strategic Initiatives
MSEL 538	Leadership for the Future

Reservation of the Right to Modify

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