Developing senior leaders in the Telfer Executive MBA

Professor Craig Dowden has a lifelong passion for studying what makes people tick. Understanding that people have personalities and organizations have personalities too – he finds the intersection between the two fascinating. This is what led him to complete his PhD in Psychology and Business. His professional experience spans decades of work in executive coaching, keynote speaking, and leadership development working closely with CEOs, founders, and C-suite executives across many industries. He is also the author of two best selling books, “Do Good to Lead Well: The Science and Practice of Positive Leadership” and “A Time to Lead: Mastering Your Self… So You Can Master Your World” and he writes articles for Forbes, Fast Company, Psychology Today, and CEO World.

Leadership as a human practice

As a professor for the Leadership Development course in Telfer’s Executive MBA program, Craig challenges students to rethink not only how they lead but who they are as leaders. “Leadership is not an abstract set of theories,” he explains, “it’s about being intentional when it comes to our behaviours, relationships, and self-awareness. Leadership starts with understanding yourself and then extends to how you as a leader shape the environment around you.”

As an advocate for evidence-based leadership development, Craig was drawn to teaching at Telfer because of its focus in combining academic rigour with real-world practices. “If you Google leadership, you’ll get a bazillion opinions,” he says. “What’s most commonly missing is leadership as an evidence-based practice.” Rather than solely relying on trends or stories, he uses research to support learning and makes sure it can be put into practice right away.

Learning by doing, reflecting, and practising

Craig’s teaching style is practical and interactive. In his classes, he includes case studies, peer coaching, small-group discussions, and guest speakers who share real challenges. “The last thing I want to be is a talking head reading off slides,” he says. His approach recognizes that experienced professionals learn best by doing and reflecting. Peer coaching, for example, allows EMBA students to practice leadership behaviours and experience their impact, allowing for learning on several levels. This helps concepts stick and students to develop competencies more quickly.

From technical expert to executive leader

Through his coaching and teaching, Craig works on helping individuals transition into senior leaders. He says many executives enter senior roles after being rewarded for expertise, decisiveness, and personal performance but he reminds his students of Marshall Goldsmith’s profound words, “What got you here won’t get you there.”

At the executive level, leadership doesn’t mean having all the answers. It’s about aligning people around a shared purpose and helping them to succeed. One of the most common blind spots Craig sees with executives is an emphasis on tasks and execution at the expense of people. He says, “yes, operational excellence matters, but sustainable success depends on how you as a leader manage yourself and how you engage with others.”

Through structured feedback and reflection, students are asked to think about intention and impact. Craig explains, “leaders may have positive intentions, but unless they understand how their behaviour is experienced by others, their intentions may not translate into the desired outcomes.” He teaches his students to ask themselves, ‘what am I trying to accomplish by this behaviour? What have been the impacts of this behaviour? And am I achieving what I've set out to achieve?’ Answers to these questions can prompt positive change.

The foundations of evolving leadership

As EMBA students progress through the program, many experience a shift from functional expertise toward a more evolved form of leadership. Craig argues that shift is the development of three key capabilities.

The first is humility. “Inspirational leaders”, he explains, “step back and put the focus on others. They make people feel valued and heard. They resist the temptation to rely on past success and remain open, and adaptable.” He emphasizes that humility creates trust and fuels innovation. This is what allows organizations to grow.

The second capability Craig strives to strengthen in his Leadership Development class is curiosity. With complexity and constant change in the business world, he says leaders must ask questions rather than rely solely on answers. When they invite different perspectives, organizations benefit from employees sharing more insight and creativity.

Finally, he highlights empathy as a core capability in leadership development. He says, “Empathy is not about avoiding tough decisions; it’s about making sure people feel understood.” He notes that research supports this: “Empathy is one of the strongest predictors of executive excellence and ethical leadership. Leading with empathy creates significantly higher levels of engagement, loyalty, and psychological safety.”

In an AI-driven world, these qualities will become increasingly important.

Why self-awareness is so difficult and so essential

Despite evidence that links self-awareness to leadership effectiveness, it is still one of the hardest capabilities to develop. Craig says our self-serving bias is a major obstacle to the development of self-awareness. An example he shares: “Research shows that most leaders believe they are above-average communicators, and yet what is the number one reason people leave organizations? Poor relationships with a supervisor(s), which suggests most leaders are not as good at communicating as they think.”

He goes on to say that developing self-awareness is also difficult for leaders because of the quality of feedback they receive. “Feedback is the starting point for self-awareness and development but as leaders rise in seniority, guess what they receive less of - honest feedback. This happens because employees fear there could be consequences. This creates blind spots for leaders and stalls their growth. Real development happens when leaders face discomfort long enough to want to change their behaviour. This is why students are engaged in structured feedback, reflection, and assessment exercises not just in my course but throughout the program.”

Authentic leadership

So how can leaders remain authentic while still trying to lead through continuous change and ambiguity? Craig says they do it through values. His definition of authentic leadership comes from former Ford CEO Alan Mulally, who said, “authentic leadership is the alignment between values, beliefs and behaviours.” Craig elaborates, “When leaders act out of character, they lose trust with their team quickly. Values can act as a compass when the way forward isn’t clear. Leaders who are grounded in what they stand for can maintain their credibility.” After years of coaching executives, Craig says he hears a consistent message: leaders wish they had learned to ask more questions and ask for help sooner. Many fear that admitting they don’t have the answers will undermine their credibility. He shares the opposite is true. “Leaders who say ‘I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out together’ build trust and psychological safety. This shift from being an individual problem-solver to more of a collective leader is the outcome Craig and the Telfer Executive MBA program aims for in their students’ learning experience.

Preparing leaders for the future

When asked which professional competencies will matter most in the future, Craig has a simple answer: awareness of self and awareness of others. “In an AI-driven world, it's going to be the human skills that are going to be even more important because good luck being a subject matter expert - AI is going to figure out all the left-brain thinking that we're doing. But how are human beings different than AI? We’re human. So, it's relationships, building trust and empathy. All these things are going to be incredibly important. Data is already showing people’s frustration when they are diverted to an AI agent. People crave human connection. Human skills will be the competitive advantage. Unfortunately, we increasingly have less opportunity to practise the human skills. So, the very skills that will be our competitive advantage are the things we're not investing in and spending time on. That’s why I think it’s fantastic that Telfer has a heavy focus on Emotional Intelligence because that's what we should be doubling down on.”

Outside of the classroom, Craig is a huge basketball fan and loves to travel. A fun fact that is not known about him: while growing up, his nickname was ‘egg’. “I was tall, lanky and awkward. Running races was a big thing with the kids in my neighbourhood, and you know the saying ‘whoever’s last is the rotten egg.’ You can guess who was always last,” he says with a laugh.