Details for CMS501 Listening as Transformative Practice and Leadership

This subject explores listening as an essential skill for effective leadership, coaching, and mentoring. Students discover that leadership is a functional skill accessible to all, not merely a positional privilege, and that intentional listening is the cornerstone of influence, connection, and sustainable growth. 

Through theoretical frameworks and practical application, students learn to distinguish between listening “to” content and listening “for” deeper meaning—including values, emotions, assumptions, and possibilities. The subject emphasises creating psychologically safe spaces, enabling genuine dialogue and building cultures of trust. 

Quick Stats

• Currently offered by Alphacrucis: Yes
• Course code: CMS501
• Credit points: 10

Subject Coordinator

Prerequisite

Nil. None unless specified in affiliated course structure.

Unit Content

Outcomes

1. Articulate an understanding of the core competencies and theories for coaching and mentoring. 
2. Critically analyse the relationship between listening and effective leadership. 
3. Evaluate personal listening filters, biases, and skill development using evidence-based models. 
4. Synthesise multiple listening frameworks to facilitate transformational dialogue in complex and ambiguous environments. 
5. Apply intentional listening techniques and questioning that integrate psychological safety principles.  

Subject Content

 

1. Introduction to Listening as a Core Skill in leadership, coaching and mentoring. Leadership is functional, not just positional
2. Practical: Listening with Intention. Listening “for” and listening “to” 
3. Psychological Safety, to support intentional listening, communication, and wellbeing 
4. Practical: SELAH creating calm spaces for conversations . I matter, YOU matter, WE matter. FLOW-humility
5. Listening as a Superpower: Social Benefits of Listening & Cognitive Benefits of Listening
6. Practical: Levels of Listening (Seidman, Kline, Scharmer) 
7. Language and Dialogue  
8. Practical: Conditions for Dialogue
9. Radical Listening: From Directive to Dialogical
10. Practical: Cultures of Trust (through dialogical conversations)
11. Finding FLOW. The two anxieties of Learning and “unlearning” (Schein & Schein)  
12. Practical: FLOW-sustaining growth
13. Reflection 

 

This course may be offered in the following formats

• Face to face on site (extensive)
• E-learning (online/synchronous) 

Please check the timetable to see when this subject will next be offered at Alphacrucis University College.

Assessment Methods

1. Critical Reflection (30%)
2. Minor Essay (20%)
3. 20-min recorded presentation and report (50%)

Prescribed Text

Van Nieuwerburgh, C. (2026). Intoduction to Coaching Skills: A Practical Guide