At Wharton, you learn leadership by leading. We believe that you can't learn leadership and teamwork simply by reading or attending lectures. Our leadership curriculum teaches fundamental practical skills of teamwork, leadership, and persuasion, and we give you a wide range of opportunities throughout the school to put them into practice.

Leadership Learning in the Classroom

The practice and theory of leadership are woven throughout the Wharton curriculum, beginning with Pre-Term and the core. Focused on building skills, ethics, and communication, the leadership learning experience at Wharton builds on the learning team model, designed to cultivate collaborative skills and teach leadership in the kind of horizontal teamwork environment found in most work teams and executive committees.

Foundations of Leadership and Teamwork

This course focuses on individual leadership skills assessment and development, team building and performance, and team leadership. Key topics include self-awareness, working in teams, and leading others.

As part of Pre-Term, all incoming students participate in the Learning Team Retreat led by second-year Leadership Fellows. Here, you meet your fellow learning team members for the first time. Teams and individuals receive coaching and mentoring from their assigned Fellows, trained second-year students who work with your team throughout the year. You can also seek additional coaching in leadership from experienced faculty members and/or a senior executive mentor through the Leadership Development Club.

Wharton's Ethics Program teaches the precepts of ethical business decision making based on the principle that leadership and ethics are inseparable. An essential tool for sound business decision making, ethical concepts and processes enable managers and business leaders to weigh company interests, social implications, legal and regulatory restrictions, the competitive environment, and the bottom line.

Since 1991, Wharton's Ethics Program has expanded on the lessons of its required core course, Ethics and Responsibility, incorporating an attention to fairness and social responsibility across the curriculum. Some courses focus on key ethical issues presented and discussed in one or two classes; in other courses, ethical concepts are incorporated throughout the semester.

Wharton's Legal Studies and Business Ethics faculty members have been at the forefront of research and curriculum development in business ethics and social responsibility. Working with colleagues from other departments, they play a central role in integrating business ethics into the Wharton curriculum. The Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research supports multidisciplinary research that is brought back to the classroom to continually strengthen students' understanding of the ethical issues they may confront in business.

Wharton's Communication Program helps prepare business leaders for the increasingly complex array of communication challenges in the workplace – e.g., speeches, email, webcasts, blogs, podcasts, video conferences, media interviews, and contentious shareholder meetings. Our practical, skills-based approach helps students strengthen their confidence and effectiveness as communicators and develop their personal style in various communication settings

The program offers advanced speaking and writing courses for credit, as well as non-credit seminars and workshops on business communication topics. Our hands-on approach uses multiple practice opportunities, with in-class critique and feedback, to reinforce theories of communication. Our required (core) seminar in Management Communication averages nine students per class and offers optional sections for non-native speakers of English. Topics include organization and delivery of speeches, defending one’s view before adversarial audiences, visual display of data, use of PowerPoint, and dealing effectively with the media.

Second-year students selected as Wharton-Omnicom Communication Fellows (supported by outside funding from the Omnicom Group) assist with the coaching of all MBA students enrolled in communication courses.

Choose from a wide range of challenging courses in diverse disciplines and formats, including such classes as:

Beyond the Classroom

Beyond the classroom, leadership development at Wharton includes taking on leadership roles in conferences and club activities, meeting new challenges through opportunities like Wharton's Leadership Ventures, and learning directly from experienced leaders in our active Leadership Lecture Series. See Leadership in Action for more.