God desires that we become one as He is One. God works through leaders to make this happen, both in and outside of formal Church settings. However, leadership is about more than manipulation and the exercise of authority. Good leaders have a motivating vision and know the people they serve well enough to gain their support for that vision. Over time, this kind of leadership creates a culture that naturally inclines its members toward harmony, discernment, and efficiency. This course introduces students to the principles that allow leaders to gain and keep support for their plans and create a healthy organization that benefits all its members. It also devotes considerable attention to understanding how a leader’s personality and spiritual state affect his ability to lead and manage groups effectively.
This course uses the classic text on leadership, Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, to structure our lessons on how to lead well. After the first lesson, each session will be dedicated to a section in the book. Please make sure you have completed the readings before you come to class. While the book is grounded in a Christian ethic, we will be talking about places where its ideas can be improved through the application of Orthodox teachings. In our discussions and your assignments, I encourage you to laud the book and the other materials when they are good and to criticize and offer suggestions when they could be improved.
Leadership can be learned, but it takes mastering more than techniques: we have to learn about ourselves and the people, cultures, and institutions that we are a part of. To help us learn about ourselves, I am requiring each student to take the Big Five Personality Assessment at https://www.understandmyself.com/. While there are free versions out there, this one provides additional information that is worth the ten dollars you will spend on it. We will discuss each of the five dimensions and how they impact leadership styles and effectiveness.
Course Objectives
Recognize and describe the attributes of both healthy and toxic work environments.
Explain how certain behaviors create and sustain healthy and efficient work cultures and others do not.
Describe personal strengths and weaknesses and explain how they will affect their own leadership style.
Learning Outcomes
Students will demonstrate their comprehension of and critical engagement with the material through active participation in class discussions.
Students will further demonstrate their comprehension of and critical engagement with the course material through completion of weekly assignments, a book review, and a final exam.
Required Texts
Carnegie, Dale. How To Win Friends And Influence People. 2022. A classic work on leadership.
Each student must take the Big Five Personality Assessment ($10) at https://www.understandmyself.com/ before the second session, when we will discuss how each of the five areas affects our leadership style.
Suggested Texts
Brown, Brene. Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. Random House, 2017. Brene Brown focuses on the soft skills of empathy and vulnerability. Very worthwhile.
Cialdini, Robert B. Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion. Harper Business, 2021. Psychology helps explain why some approaches work better than others, and this is a modern classic on the subject. We will be covering the concepts in this book during our class discussions.
St. Gregory the Great. The Book of Pastoral Rule. St. Vladimir Seminary Press, 2007. Also available for free at ccel.org/fathers. This includes insights on how personality affects leadership ability and how certain personality types should be led.
The instructor may provide additional materials to the students.
Course Requirements
Participation. Students are expected to attend all Zoom meetings, be on time at the beginning of class, and stay for the duration of the class. Furthermore, students should come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings.
Papers. Students will write four double-spaced, five-paragraph essays, each due one week after the next. Prompts for these are posted on the course page. Students will upload their essays to the course site.
Grading. The student’s final grade will be determined by:
Module One Paper: 20%
Module Two Paper: 20%
Module Three Paper: 20%
Module Four Paper: 20%
Module Five Paper: 20%
Our meetings will take place over Zoom.
Course Schedule
11/18/2025. Module One: Introduction to Influence.
In this module, we will examine the theology of harmony and the psychology of influence, and discuss their relevance to effective leadership. We will also discuss some of the ways that psychologists and human resource departments analyze and describe personality (e.g. the big five, Myers-Briggs, and the Enneagram).
11/25/2025. Module Two: Fundamental Techniques in Handling People.
This session covers the critical role of humility and repentance (self-improvement), recognizing and naming the good in others, and hearing and valuing their dreams. We will also be talking about how personality traits and spiritual strengths and weaknesses affect both leadership and institutional culture. Covers Part One of the textbook.
12/2/2025. Module Three: Love and Leadership.
We spend the bulk of this session on tangible ways to develop and show love for others. We will also discuss how Christian virtue, ascetism, and the fruits of the Spirit contribute to successful leadership. Covers Part Two of the textbook.
12/9/2025. Module Four: Goal Alignment.
This module talks about the need to give people your full attention, get them talking, actively listen to what they have to say, and challenge them to live up to their own ideals (by aligning themselves to your shared vision). Covers Part Three of the textbook.
12/16/2025. Module Five. Leadership and Difficult Conversations.
In this module, we cover something many leaders dread and few do well: difficult conversations and accountability. Done well, such conversations strengthen discipleship, mutual trust, and commitment to the organization’s goals and the leader’s vision. Done poorly, such conversations (or their lack) ruin careers and foster dysfunction. Covers Part Four of the textbook.
About the Instructor
While the instructor, Fr. Anthony Perkins, studied theories of leadership in graduate school and seminary, he is also a graduate of several practical leadership courses in the U.S. Army, served as the platoon sergeant of an airborne intelligence platoon, and spent most of his twenty-year career in the US Army Reserves as a military intelligence warrant officer. He loves teaching and has done so at The Ohio State University, the Naval War College, the National Ground Intelligence Center, St. Sophia Ukrainian Orthodox Theological Seminary (where he also served for several years as Vocations Director), Hartwell Elementary School, homeschool co-ops, and the parishes he has served. He was ordained as a priest in 2007 and currently serves Christ the Saviour Antiochian Orthodox Church in Anderson, SC and teaches at St. Athanasius College and St. Sophia Seminary. His Ancient Faith podcasts are Good Guys Wear Black and Made to be a Kingdom. His independent podcast is OrthoAnalytika. His CV and publications are available at academia.edu.
