Leading a unit at the heart of the Deakin MBA - MBA700 Leadership and Professional Development - Dr Nicole Larson, draws on a wealth of professional experience and research insight to help students understand themselves and optimise their leadership.

Paul Harrison: Can you tell us a bit about your background and what brought you to academia and the Deakin MBA?

Nicole Larson: Well, that is a very long story! I will try to give you the short version here.

I began university certain I’d one day become a clinical psychologist. After earning an undergraduate degree in psychology, I worked with people recovering from traumatic brain injuries, which was a very humbling and life-changing experience. During those years, it became evident that the organisational systems surrounding my clients mattered just as much (or more) than the work we did with them. I watched brilliant support workers burn out, dangerous situations unfold, turnover soar, and vulnerable clients lose the continuity of care they needed to heal.

That’s what sparked my interest in Industrial-Organisational (IO) Psychology, which essentially applies psychological principles and scientific methods to understand and improve workplaces. I moved into a management role and started asking different questions. Like, what kind of person will fit and thrive here? Or how do we better prepare our new hires to be successful and fulfilled at work? I revamped selection, training, leadership, and teamwork processes and practices. I was able to see a tangible and lasting impact on the individuals we supported by adjusting how the organisation operated.

I went back to school for formal training in IO Psychology and completed a Master’s and PhD at the University of Calgary, where I happily geeked out researching topics like team effectiveness, leadership, motivation, and trust. I was thrilled to join Deakin, and given my background and training, knew teaching into the MBA would be the perfect way to help students put theory into practice to enrich both their professional lives and their workplaces.

Paul: How would you describe your approach to teaching and what do you hope students take away from MBA700?

Nicole: That is an interesting question, and something I’ve been reflecting on a lot lately.

I would describe my approach as grounded in the principles of social constructivism. That means I view knowledge as something that is co-created through dialogue, shared problem-solving, and critical reflection, rather than as content simply delivered to the class.

The MBA students arrive with such rich and diverse experiences and backgrounds, and I leverage that. Each cohort is different, and thus the discussions, problem sets, and learnings are never the same. I don’t really view myself as a “teacher” in the traditional sense, but instead as a facilitator who pulls together relevant materials, helps students make connections between theory and their professional lives, and together we surface those “aha” insight moments.

I joke that this unit can feel like group therapy at times, but we do a lot of hard work on soft skills. This involves a 360-degree leadership assessment, structured coaching with professional goal-setting, and confronting the nature of human behaviour.

The main thing I hope students walk away with is a deeper understanding of themselves and a toolbox of strategies they can deploy across a variety of personal and professional situations.

Paul: What is your current area of research, and how does it inform or complement your teaching?

Nicole: Oh, this question is harder to answer because I have many varied projects on the go.

Broadly, my research focuses on team effectiveness, examining how attributes of individuals within a team can amplify or constrain overall team dynamics and performance. In MBA700, this plays out in our discussions of trust (e.g., students compute their own trust equation to identify strengths and pitfalls), or in topics on how to motivate others and communicate effectively when colleagues have different interaction preferences (e.g., students practice identifying different social styles and uncover how their peers perceive them).

The theoretical foundations and findings of my research often surface organically in seminars and group discussions. Students might reflect on workplace experiences that echo a core result of my work, or sometimes present counterfactual evidence to established management theories, sparking rich discussions and even opening new lines of enquiry.

Paul: What is something that makes you smile at the moment?

Nicole: Many things! I’m from Canada, so in the winter months I tend to get a lot of joy from hibernation type of activities. A delicious batch of soup (most recently, potato and leek), a good book, perfectly made cup of coffee, and an unexpectedly warm day.