Doctorate in Transformational Leadership and Coaching

Coursework

Introduction to the Six Core Disciplines of Wright Integrative Learning in Transformational Coaching & Leadership (AC01, 1 credit)

Foundations of Human Development & Emotional Intelligence for Coaching & Leadership (AC12, 6 credits)

Foundations of Human Relationships for Coaching & Leadership (AC22, 6 credits)

Coaching & Leadership Approaches to Developing Personal Power (AC32, 6 credits)

Purposeful Living in Coaching & Leadership (AC42, 6 credits)

Scholarly Inquiry & Critical Thinking (AC62, 6 credits)

Transformational Leadership & Group Dynamics (AC72, 6 credits)

Professional & Leadership Coaching (AC82, 6 credits)

Processes of Transformation in Coaching & Leadership (AC92, 6 credits)

Master’s Thesis (AC95, 8 credits)

(Since the master of arts in transformational leadership and coaching is part of the doctoral program, WGU students first complete the master's degree, including writing a thesis, and then complete doctoral coursework and dissertation.)

Advanced Developmental Approaches to Facilitating Human Emergence & Performance in Leadership & Coaching (AC311, 6 credits)

In this course, you deepen your understanding of human development as it relates to coaching and leadership. This increased depth allows you to intervene more effectively with intent to facilitate the development of individuals and groups.

You strengthen your grasp of how patterns for individual accomplishment are set in early childhood. Identifying and understanding such patterns is foundational to strengthening individual capacity to develop and even transform in every aspect of life, including career, interpersonal relationships, and health.

In this course, you examine the principles of developmental psychology and the Wright Developmental model and their implications for adult performance, and apply developmental approaches to your particular areas of academic and professional pursuit and interest.

No prerequisite beyond WGU master of arts.

Advanced Adlerian Approaches to Leadership & Coaching in Human Emergence & Performance (AC321, 6 credits)

Adlerian psychology provides a historically important framework for understanding the processes of lifelong learning, mastery of fundamental life tasks, and the fulfillment of human potential at the individual, group, and societal levels.

In this course, you expand and deepen your understanding of the Adlerian framework for facilitating individual development through coaching and leadership. You explore enhanced coaching, leadership, and training by further integrating Adlerian principles and concepts within the Wright Integrative approach to personal transformation.

The course further develops intervention and strategy skills as you apply to your work environment, be it corporate or individual coaching. Advanced visioning and goal achievement approaches will be explored as you add to your mastery of life tasks and enhanced personal and social effectiveness.

No prerequisite beyond WGU Master of Arts.

Existential & Humanistic Approaches Applied to Coaching & Leadership (AC331, 6 credits)

In this course you advance your knowledge of existential and human potential approaches and synthesize them into your integrative framework as it is applied to the areas of your focus for your leadership and coaching. For past students, these have ranged from education to lifestyle enhancement, parenting, and to psychotherapy.

Existential principles and human potential approaches are viewed from the perspective of emerging neuroscience and cognitive science to maximize the empowerment by coaches and leaders. Human potential approaches will be used to facilitate group interaction as well as to cultivate individual potential while existential philosophy will be applied to individual and group empowerment.

The core tenets of existential philosophy—truth, choice, engagement, and personal responsibility, among others—are grounded in daily work experience as well as in individuals’ missions, corporate missions, and operating agreements.

No prerequisite beyond WGU Master of Arts.

Systems Assessment, Intervention, & Design (AC351, 6 credits)

By analyzing systems thinking—what it is, how it evolved, and how it is currently practiced––you will understand and use systems theory to make transformational interventions with individuals, families, groups, and organizations. You will also train others in systems analysis and intervention.

In this course, you explore the relationship between culture and systems; discover ways systems relate to each other; and recognize how information flows within a system. You deepen your understanding of systems and increasingly recognize the interconnectedness of actions, organizations, and social systems.

You also apply systems thinking to laboratory groups and actual work, family, and community scenarios as you use principles, operating agreements, and truth-telling in naming belief systems, verbalizing power and control, and other interventions to effect systemic change.

No prerequisite beyond WGU Master of Arts.

Training Development Lab – Research & Design (AC361, 1 credit)

In this lab course, you demonstrate key aspects of curriculum development and delivery. You will study the discipline of training research, preparation, and design. You either help assess and plan a Wright Business, Inc. training in a specified area or assist in developing curriculum in a new area.

The details of the lab must be approved by the Chancellor or the Dean of Faculty & Curriculum.

Prerequisites: Instructor approval.

Training Delivery Lab – Facilitation & Evaluation (AC362, 1 credit)

In this lab course, you deliver and assess what you researched and designed in AC361. You demonstrate the effectiveness of your planning and design work. You either help deliver a Wright Business, Inc. training in the area or help deliver another pre-approved training, demonstrating training capability within the six core disciplines you have studied.

The details of the lab must be approved by the Chancellor or the Dean of Faculty & Curriculum.

Prerequisites: AC361.

Advanced Training Development Lab – Research & Design (AC363, 1 credit)

In this lab course, you build on your previous research, planning, and design skills in presentation and curriculum development. You demonstrate use of at least three of the six core Wright Integrative disciplines for delivery in a training in the area of your interest or help develop Wright Business, Inc. curriculum in the area.

The details of the lab must be approved by the Chancellor or the Dean of Faculty & Curriculum.

Prerequisites: AC362, and instructor approval.

Advanced Training Delivery Lab – Facilitation & Evaluation (AC364, 1 credit)

In this lab course, you demonstrate advanced delivery skills in an area of interest in which you researched and developed the curriculum. You demonstrate competence in synthesizing at least three of the six Wright Integrative core disciplines. You either deliver alone or help deliver a training in the area.

The details of the lab must be approved by the Chancellor or the Dean of Faculty & Curriculum.

Prerequisites: AC363, and instructor approval.

Advanced Transformational Group Leadership & Coaching I (AC411, 6 credits)

In this course you develop or enhance your skills in complex group leadership by co-leading or assisting a group appropriate to your experience level as determined by faculty, and provide coaching for at least four people. If faculty determine that your experience warrants it, you may assist or co-lead a transformations laboratory.

You participate in group supervision every other week as well. You learn to identify and track a wide range of dynamics in groups, assess and facilitate depth of emotional expression, lead to enhance group cohesion, and empower individuals in the group. You identify key leadership issues and challenges and assess your and your fellow leaders’ levels of operating on the TIME transformational leadership continuum.

You also participate in coaching supervision, and complete the course with narratives for each person you coach as well as discussing strengths and challenges in the engagements, and what you accomplished and learned. Depending on the coaching setting, include pre- and post-assessments and client feedback where appropriate. You write an online project chronicling your learning, leadership, and outcomes.

Prerequisites: AC311, AC321, AC331, AC351.

Advanced Transformational Group Leadership & Coaching II (AC412, 6 credits)

A continuation of AC411, in this course you develop or enhance your skills in complex group leadership by co-leading or assisting a group appropriate to your experience level as determined by faculty, and provide coaching for at least four people. If faculty determines that your experience warrants it, you may assist or co-lead a transformations laboratory.

You participate in group supervision every other week as well. You learn to identify and track a wide range of dynamics in groups, assess and facilitate depth of emotional expression, lead to enhance group cohesion, and empower individuals in the group. You identify key leadership issues and challenges and assess your and your fellow leaders’ levels of operating on the TIME transformational leadership continuum.

You also participate in coaching supervision, and complete the course with narratives for each person you coach as well as discussing strengths and challenges in the engagements, and what you accomplished and learned. Depending on the coaching setting, include pre- and post-assessments and client feedback where appropriate. You write an online project chronicling your learning, leadership, and outcomes.

Prerequisite: AC411.

Research Methodologies & Design I (AC431, 6 credits)

The Research Methodologies and Design quarters are designed to help you build skill in scholarly inquiry. In these courses, you survey a range of research practices, then focus on a selected practice for further study. Working with a faculty member, you design a program that explores this research practice in depth and applies it to an area of study you choose.

You learn the elements of research design as well as how to design epistemologically sound research. You demonstrate understanding of the architecture of research design and how to match research tools with research objectives; the elements of good research design; how to develop, design, and write up a research plan; and how to critique research studies and reports and be a skilled consumer of research.

Prerequisites: AC412.

Research Methodologies & Design II (AC437, 6 credits)

The Research Methodologies and Design quarters are designed to help you build skill in scholarly inquiry. In AC431, you surveyed a range of research practices. Now you will focus on a selected methodology and subject for further study. You may consider this course to be preparation for your doctoral research. Your work products can become the methodology and design sections of your dissertation. You may also find that you are beginning your literature review chapter.

You will be working closely with a faculty member whom you may choose to be head of your dissertation committee. With faculty guidance, you will design the project to explore the area of research that you choose to approach in depth. You will learn the elements of this particular research methodology as you learn to design epistemologically sound research. You will demonstrate understanding of the architecture of research design, how to match this research tool with your research objectives, and how to design a specific research project or research plan. Your work product will be of the quality expected of doctoral dissertation methodology and design chapters.

Prerequisite: AC431.

Topic Research & Proposal Development (AC511, 8 credits)

In this course learners develop their dissertation proposal, begin literature review if appropriate to their research methodology, submit their research project to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for approval, and defend the dissertation proposal to a committee of faculty and selected peers.

Prerequisite: AC437.

Dissertation

Dissertation (AC600, 22 credits)

This course includes completing comprehensive exams and completion of your dissertation––data collection and analysis, dissertation writing, literature review (if a grounded theory dissertation), final oral review, revisions, and final approval. This course spans two quarters.

Prerequisites: All doctoral courses.

Performative Learning (PL) Trainings

All Performative Learning Trainings are non-credit bearing.

• A weekend training at the beginning of the quarter.
• A weekly evening 1.5-hour class for 13 weeks.
• A 45-minute coaching session biweekly.
• Weekly online written check-ins demonstrating what you learned and how you grew.

Year of Transformation: Nourishment & Self Care Quarter (PL01, 0 credits)

In this PL you learn and undertake weekly assignments to further develop your emotional intelligence–– identifying your emotions, understanding their role in effective functioning and personal and professional satisfaction and success, experimenting with emotional expression, being in the moment, and developing skills of emotional regulation and facility.

No prerequisite.

Year of Transformation: Family & Intimacy Quarter (PL02, 0 credits)

In this PL you explore the impact of your family relationships on your relationships in the rest of your life, your work, and with those you coach and lead. You diagram your family tree and identify your family limiting beliefs and family member roles and special circumstances in order to identify behavioral patterns as they were laid down neurologically in your earliest years.

You learn the neuroscience related to your early experiences in your family system, identify the impact of these early experiences in your life today, and develop a future vision for your relationships. You identify skills for more genuine relationships; understand how early family beliefs, norms, and patterns developed and influence current relationships; identify unconscious beliefs that drive daily actions; gain greater choice to live your own values; and be more responsible in communication.

No prerequisite.

Year of Transformation: Personal Power Quarter (PL03, 0 credits)

In this PL you study forms of personal power and develop strategies to enhance your use of your personal power. You use your enhanced skills to overcome barriers, take more risks, and develop new ways to understand and apply the principle of intention. You understand and apply the law of requisite variety, develop more connected relationships, and take greater personal responsibility in work and other areas.

You learn, practice, and apply different skills of personal power each week in your personal and professional life and in your coaching and leadership.

No prerequisite.

Year of Transformation: Purposeful Living & Spiritual Development Quarter (PL04, 0 credits)

In this PL you practice living with the principles of purpose, learn about the qualities of purposeful living, and begin to identify your own life purpose. You further challenge disempowering and limiting childhood beliefs, choose empowering beliefs and principles to live by, and find ways to experience every interaction as growthful.

You learn about developmental models of personal development and apply these as a map to guide your spiritual development in ways that can apply to believers of all faiths. You learn and practice the skills of principle based leadership and coaching.

No prerequisite.

Group Process Training (PL05, 0 credits)

This PL introduces you to group process in a group experience. You analyze the experience, get feedback, and apply academic and theoretical perspectives to your experience. You apply the analytic and intervention skills you learn to groups you attend, wherever you are. You develop a foundation to continue to become increasingly aware of group dynamics and how to intervene in groups to better achieve your and your groups’ objectives.

You learn to identify formal and informal group decision processes and identify who makes decisions, who influences those decisions, and how they do it. You develop foundations for insight into who aligns with whom to control how groups interact, how groups break down, and how conflict is managed. You learn foundational skills to enhance group functioning, facilitate enhanced participation, and empower participants in groups you lead or belong to.

Prerequisites: PL01, PL02, PL03, PL04, or Instructor Permission.

Training Weekend Assisting (PL06, 0 credits)

In this PL you enhance your teaming and communication skills as you assist in leading a training weekend. You contribute based on your skill level and capabilities. You analyze your experience to identify the future skills to develop, skills you employed, what you learned, how you improved your skills, how your awareness increased, and any other insights resulting from the experience.

No prerequisite.

Peer Empowerment Training (PL07, 0 credits)

In this PL you learn powerful communication and facilitation skills including contextual listening, intentional speaking, and the power of presence to facilitate expression and problem solving in others. You discover the power of flow, aliveness, and truth in individuals naturally and easily solving their own problems with no advice.

This PL provides a powerful foundation for your coaching and leadership, underlining the wisdom of individuals and groups to solve their own problems. You will discover the power of emotions and expressing them responsibly and how that impacts interactions with others. In learning how to have greater range of expression of emotions during these trainings, you develop a greater self-awareness and sense of self. You experience greater responsibility for the ways you communicate which increases satisfaction in life.

As a coach and leader, you learn co-voyaging, a personal responsibility skill that helps you take responsibility for your own experience in ways that increase your insight and effectiveness.

No prerequisite.

Coaching Lab (PL08, 0 credits)

In this PL, you engage in a coaching experience where you recruit coaching clients, coach them, learn and practice coaching skills, share your coaching experiences with other coaching students, and receive feedback and coaching to increase your effectiveness. You will gain skill and experience in the ICF coaching competencies as you increase your coaching proficiency.

Prerequisites: PL01, PL02, PL03, and PL04, or instructor permission.

Transformation Labs

Please note that transformation labs include:

• A weekly 2½ hour evening meeting.
• Three weekend trainings per year.
• A 45-minute coaching session biweekly.
• Participation in a team project once per year.
• Weekly online written check-ins demonstrating what you learned and how you grew.

Emotional Intelligence Transformation Lab (PL09, 0 credits)

In this PL you participate in an emotional intelligence transformation lab for a one-year period. You learn to identify, name, and responsibly and fully express emotions. You develop skills of emotional intelligence and to up- and down-regulate emotional expression.

You practice effective self-care, learn to engage in conflict productively, and to be clear about desires and intentions. You identify unmet developmental needs and develop the skills to address them.

Prerequisites: PL01, PL02, PL03, and PL04.

Social Intelligence Transformation Lab (PL10, 0 credits)

In this PL you participate in an advanced transformation lab over a one-year period. You enhance your personal power and influence as you learn to orient to vision; to even more deeply tell the truth; to become aware of and effectively express judgments; to engage in conflict productively; to be clear about desires and intentions and to fulfill these, especially in coaching and leadership.

Prerequisites: PL01, PL02, PL03, and PL04, and PL09.