How does PSI compare with how leadership is taught at other top business schools?
The distinctive features of PSI are that it identifies important capabilities through the lens of cutting-edge psychological research and it inculcates them with a blend of pedagogical methods that go beyond the standard lecture and case-discussion formats. Many programs teach leadership primarily through case studies of leaders past and speeches by current CEOs. The limitation of the “biographies and war stories” pedagogy is that students take away battle plans suited to the last war rather than to the next war. Generation Y managers will be leading different kinds of people in different kinds of organizations. Our program is organized around the psychological capabilities involved in collaborating with, motivating and leading others. Columbia has the strongest faculty in psychology of any top business school and thus can teach leadership in terms of capabilities in this new way. The MBA program and extracurriculars become a laboratory for learning leadership; students are required to
