This course treats leadership as a performative craft: a role enacted to mobilize people toward shared goals. Drawing on Marco Aponte-Moreno’s Leadership as Performance (2024) and Adrienne Maree Brown’s Emergent Strategy (2017), students cultivate the SPACE capabilities—Self-awareness, Presence, Authenticity, Communication, and Emotional intelligence—while exploring leadership as a relational, adaptive, and emergent process. Through acting exercises, role play, and adaptations tools, participants practice “being with” complexity and designing for emergence in teams and organizations.
Participants will develop and apply the SPACE capabilities—self-awareness, presence, authenticity, communication, and emotional intelligence—to enhance leadership effectiveness in relational and team-based contexts and develop capacity for managing uncertainty and complexity through acting exercises, role play, and adaptation tools. Individuals of all backgrounds and experience levels who want to develop their leadership presence through acting and skill-building exercises should join this course.
Maegan Azar
F25-26
Start date:
End date:
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Monday 5:00pm 6:30pm America/New_York
Wednesday 5:00pm 6:30pm America/New_York
Professor of Acting & Directing; Theatre Arts Department Chair
Maegan Azar brings more than a decade of experience in performance, directing, and collaborative leadership to WLI. She draws on her extensive work with professional theatre companies, national associations, and international training institutes to help women leaders strengthen communication, presence, and creative confidence.
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Our Leading with Presence course is for anyone ready to grow as a leader and build adaptive skills to navigate complex challenges. Whether you’re just stepping into leadership, managing a team, or shaping strategy at the highest levels, this course can help you build the confidence and agility to lead through change and uncertainty.
This is an in-person course with sessions on Monday and Wednesday nights (from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.). It’s designed to fit into your busy schedule while giving you space for connection and growth.
This isn’t a sit-back-and-listen kind of course. It’s hands-on, interactive, and full of “aha!” moments. You’ll explore the impact of complex contemporary issues on leadership practices across diverse contexts, and study and apply adaptive frameworks in interactive sessions with expert faculty. You’ll also work with peers navigating similar challenges and leave with skills to lead confidently when the path forward isn’t clear.
Completing Leading with Presence not only earns you a professional certificate from Furman’s Center for Innovative Leadership, but it can also count as credit toward a Master of Science in Innovation and Leadership.* It’s a powerful way to build immediate skills while keeping the door open to advanced study.
*Application and admission to the master’s program are required.
Register here or connect with our team for more information. We’ll help you take the first step into a learning journey that’s both exciting and transformative.
Spring 2026 Dates: April 13, 2026
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Program Overview:
Module 1: Self-Awareness for Leaders
Module 2: Communication for Leaders