Leadership & Coaching
January & February 2019
5 ECT
ESSB FSWP3081A
Prof. Dr. DAJA Derks - Theunissen
, Page 1 of 78
WEEK 1
1
, Page 2 of 78
Lecture 1: Introduction
Arnold Bakker explained that the courses this semester are Coaching and Leadership, Organizational psychology and
Safety and Health. Work engagement is a positive, affective motivational state of fulfillment that is characterized by vigor,
dedication and absorption. This is linked to creativity, motivation and other outcomes. They have created a model: Job
Demand Model (JDR). This consists of physical demands, cognitive demands, emotional demands, workload and role
conflict. If a leader offers great job resources, it creates more work engagement which leads to a better performance.
Arnold Bakker explained that proactive work behaviors are: using your strength, playful work design (making the work
more fun e.g. making your tasks a competition or game), job crafting (optimizing the work environment by the employees
themselves), and vitality management (setting goals in them of your health). But there are also downsides to work, such
as a burnout (a chronic fatigue caused by the work, which goes hand in hand with a cynical view on their work and making
mistakes). Chronic burnout is a moderator on the performance at work. The self-undermining which happens due to a
burnout, also leads to more burnout symptoms. This creates a cycle.
Arnold Bakker additionally explained that this science looks into the personality aspect of leadership and work ethic in terms
of the big 5, emotional intelligence and dark personality traits.
Daantje Derksen then explained what leadership is: leadership is a process, whereby an individual (the leader) influences
a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. However, it has many definitions. This definition was set by Northouse
(2012). In addition, there are many different leadership styles and types of situations in which a leader can be needed (e.g.
politics, sport, working environment). She explained that leadership is important because it provides a vision, provides
directions and sees the bigger picture. Leaders influence organizations and how followers feel and behave at work.
There are a lot of leadership courses on the market, but not all of them are scientifically sound. One of them is the MBTI
training. This categorizes people into groups (conservative, act, strategy, initiate; green, red, blue, purple). Every group
would need people from all categories in order for the group to function well. This is successful because it is easily
understandable, and people recognize themselves in the categories. However, personality is not a really good predictor of
leadership behavior.
There is another famous training by Simon Sinek. He created the golden circle consisting of what, how, and why an
organization does what it does. Mister Sinek focusses most on why and argues that “making money” is not a reason why
you do it.
Daantje Derksen went to a lecture by Obama and wrote down a couple of lessons:
• “Focus on the right things, instead of doing things right
2
, Page 3 of 78
• Trust is the key
• Good leaders are story tellers
o Fit your story with the identity, history and stories of the audience
o Make a real connection
o Believe what you say, sound true
o Be suspicious when leaders need flashy presentations and sound bytes
• Listen actively to stories of other people
Coaching is important since leadership can be challenging. There are a lot of coaches in the Netherlands, especially
because it is not a protected profession.
The learning objectives of the course are:
• Getting an overview of the leadership styles and consequences for both followers and organizations
• Know why and under what conditions leadership is effective
• Learn what coaching is and how you can improve the effectiveness
• Apply the theoretical concepts discusses in this course to issues in the work context
For the practical aspect of this course, there is an exam (60%) and a paper (40%) you will have to write. There are 4 regular
lectures and 1 consultancy hour (14-01-2019). There are 3 complete tutorial meetings, 1 introduction meeting and a final
meeting during which presentations will be given. She also made professor notes on the papers, which are good to read.
Critical reading tips:
• Contributions of the study
• Research design → what are the values of the findings and conclusions
• Practical implications → there will be an “apply your knowledge” question in the exam
• Limitations
• Alternative explanations
The individual assignment is expected to be a state-of-the art paper which is objective and critical. You can get a “best
paper award” for your work. You will need at least 5 separate scientific sources, and these cannot be only scientific articles
which are included in this course. You will write it in times new roman 12, line spacing 1.5.
3
January & February 2019
5 ECT
ESSB FSWP3081A
Prof. Dr. DAJA Derks - Theunissen
, Page 1 of 78
WEEK 1
1
, Page 2 of 78
Lecture 1: Introduction
Arnold Bakker explained that the courses this semester are Coaching and Leadership, Organizational psychology and
Safety and Health. Work engagement is a positive, affective motivational state of fulfillment that is characterized by vigor,
dedication and absorption. This is linked to creativity, motivation and other outcomes. They have created a model: Job
Demand Model (JDR). This consists of physical demands, cognitive demands, emotional demands, workload and role
conflict. If a leader offers great job resources, it creates more work engagement which leads to a better performance.
Arnold Bakker explained that proactive work behaviors are: using your strength, playful work design (making the work
more fun e.g. making your tasks a competition or game), job crafting (optimizing the work environment by the employees
themselves), and vitality management (setting goals in them of your health). But there are also downsides to work, such
as a burnout (a chronic fatigue caused by the work, which goes hand in hand with a cynical view on their work and making
mistakes). Chronic burnout is a moderator on the performance at work. The self-undermining which happens due to a
burnout, also leads to more burnout symptoms. This creates a cycle.
Arnold Bakker additionally explained that this science looks into the personality aspect of leadership and work ethic in terms
of the big 5, emotional intelligence and dark personality traits.
Daantje Derksen then explained what leadership is: leadership is a process, whereby an individual (the leader) influences
a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. However, it has many definitions. This definition was set by Northouse
(2012). In addition, there are many different leadership styles and types of situations in which a leader can be needed (e.g.
politics, sport, working environment). She explained that leadership is important because it provides a vision, provides
directions and sees the bigger picture. Leaders influence organizations and how followers feel and behave at work.
There are a lot of leadership courses on the market, but not all of them are scientifically sound. One of them is the MBTI
training. This categorizes people into groups (conservative, act, strategy, initiate; green, red, blue, purple). Every group
would need people from all categories in order for the group to function well. This is successful because it is easily
understandable, and people recognize themselves in the categories. However, personality is not a really good predictor of
leadership behavior.
There is another famous training by Simon Sinek. He created the golden circle consisting of what, how, and why an
organization does what it does. Mister Sinek focusses most on why and argues that “making money” is not a reason why
you do it.
Daantje Derksen went to a lecture by Obama and wrote down a couple of lessons:
• “Focus on the right things, instead of doing things right
2
, Page 3 of 78
• Trust is the key
• Good leaders are story tellers
o Fit your story with the identity, history and stories of the audience
o Make a real connection
o Believe what you say, sound true
o Be suspicious when leaders need flashy presentations and sound bytes
• Listen actively to stories of other people
Coaching is important since leadership can be challenging. There are a lot of coaches in the Netherlands, especially
because it is not a protected profession.
The learning objectives of the course are:
• Getting an overview of the leadership styles and consequences for both followers and organizations
• Know why and under what conditions leadership is effective
• Learn what coaching is and how you can improve the effectiveness
• Apply the theoretical concepts discusses in this course to issues in the work context
For the practical aspect of this course, there is an exam (60%) and a paper (40%) you will have to write. There are 4 regular
lectures and 1 consultancy hour (14-01-2019). There are 3 complete tutorial meetings, 1 introduction meeting and a final
meeting during which presentations will be given. She also made professor notes on the papers, which are good to read.
Critical reading tips:
• Contributions of the study
• Research design → what are the values of the findings and conclusions
• Practical implications → there will be an “apply your knowledge” question in the exam
• Limitations
• Alternative explanations
The individual assignment is expected to be a state-of-the art paper which is objective and critical. You can get a “best
paper award” for your work. You will need at least 5 separate scientific sources, and these cannot be only scientific articles
which are included in this course. You will write it in times new roman 12, line spacing 1.5.
3
