John R. Wooden, Stephen R. Covey and Servant Leadership: A Commentary

Ralph Waldo Emerson observed that consistency was the hobgoblin of little minds and that insight well underscores the challenges associated with accurately describing the leadership philosophy (and actions) of anyone - from coaches like John Wooden, leadership gurus like Steve Covey and Peter Drucker, philosophers like Aristotle and Socrates, or you and me. They are not always perfectly consistent, evolving, and even changing as situations and setting shift in both anticipated and unpredictable ways

Follower-Oriented Leadership

Leadership is a symbiotic relationship between those who choose to lead and those who choose to follow. Any di scussion of leadership must attend to the dynamics of this relationship. Strategies, tactics, skills, and practices are worthless unless the fundamental human aspirations that connect leaders and their constituents are understood (the word constituents is preferred to followers because the former connotes a greater sense of engagement and commitment than the latter term). What leaders say they do is one thing; what constituents say they want and how well leaders meet these expectations is another. For a balanced view of leadership, one must consider the expectations that people have of their leaders: What do they look for and admire in a person they would willingly follow

Leadership is Everyone\u27s Business & Other Lessons from Over a Dozen Years of Leadership Research

In this article we discuss several lessons we\u27ve learned from thousands of venturers about what it takes to get extraordinary things done in organizations, and we examine some implications for the practice of organization development

We Lead from the Inside Out

Business leaders we must clarify and effectively communicate their values before expecting others to follow. To identify values requires thorough and often intense self-examination

A Longitudinal Study Examining Changes in Students\u27 Leadership Behavior

This study investigated the impact of a leadership development program in students\u27 first year with the subsequent leadership behaviors of those students in their senior year. Significant changes were reported in the frequency of engaging in leadership behaviors from freshman to senior years. No differences were found on the basis of gender. In addition, significant differences in leadership behaviors were found between seniors who had participated in the leadership development program with a control group of seniors who had not participated. Results supported the impact of a formal leadership program upon students\u27 leadership development

Be Leaders. Do Leadership.

Too much of the time, business schools teach students about leadership, about leadership theories and concepts, about social psychological concepts as applied to leadership. Learning about leadership is not the same as learning to be a leader. We should be teaching our students to be leaders

A Leadership Development Instrument for Students: Updated

This paper updates the research literature on the Student Leadership Practices Inventory, which is one of the few leadership development instruments targeted for college students. The psychometric properties of a revised version of the instrument are also provided, along with a discussion of developmental issues pertinent to developing and enhancing leadership capabilities in college students

The Impact of Gender, Ethnicity, School Setting, and Experience on Student Leadership: Does It Really Matter?

This research examined how gender, ethnicity, school setting, and experience influenced students\u27 leadership practices. Significant differences were found in how student leaders behaved on the basis of these variables. However, further analyses suggested that these differences did not significantly influence the effectiveness of student leaders. That is, the most effective student leaders engaged in the five leadership practices more than the less effective leaders, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or school setting. The impact of these findings for both assessing student leaders as well as for developing their leadership capabilities is discussed, along with ideas for future studies

Spirituality and Leadership Among College Freshmen

Over a century ago, Ralph Waldo Emerson bragged to Henry Thoreau that at Harvard they teach all branches of learning. Thoreau responded, Yes, but they don \u27 t teach the roots (Jacobs, 1991, p. 277). This sort of commentary continues to this day as a growing number of scholars and practitioners argue that the roots of effective leadership are grounded in the spiritual dimension of individual leaders (e.g., Conger, 1994; Marcie, 1997; Mitroff & Denton, 1999). While hundreds of articles and books about spirituality and the workplace are now appearing, most are theory-based or anecdotal (Strack, 2001). Very little quantitative and empirical research exists in this subject area. Part of the problem is that spirituality is a complex, abstract, and multidimensional construct that has little consensus among leading scholars. However, Gibbons ( 1999) has pointed out that no matter which concept of spirituality is espoused (e.g., mystical, religious, or secular), they all involve beliefs, values, and practices that must be lived out by an individual with consistency to be spiritual. One obvious area in which spirituality might be lived out consistently is through leaders hip. Indeed, most leadership scholars assert that a major determinant or motivation for taking on leadership is derived from some source beyond the individual leader; for example, a higher power, a set of immutable spiritual beliefs or values, or a set of higher-level human values (Bolman & Deal, 2001 ; Conger, 1994; Kanungo & Mendonca, 1996; Kouzes & Posner, 2002; Moxley, 2000). This source provides the foundation for the leader\u27s relationship with self and with others. Effective leaders possess, recognize, and use the spiritual dimension of human existence to benefit others in their organizations and communities. Many decades ago McClelland conceptualized this relationship by describing leaders using socialized power for the benefit of others rather than individualized power for the benefit of self (McClelland & Burnham, 2003). This current study explores the possible link between spirituality and leadership. Data were collected from over 700 college freshman. They completed the student version of the Leadership Practices Inventory (Kouzes & Posner, 2005) and the Spirituality Assessment Scale (Beazley, 1997). The analysis will investigate how leadership practices and dimensions of spirituality are related among college freshman. There has been much recent interest in the spirituality of young people (cf. Cannister, 1999; Groen, 2001 ; Grytting, 2003; Klenke, 2003; Manning, 200 l ; Schafer, 1997 ; Smith, 2003). The Higher Education Research Institute (2005) recently launched a national study of student spirituality. It suggested that spirituality points to our interior self (our subjective life) as contrasted to the objective domain of material events and objects. Spirituality is reflected in the values and ideals that we hold most dear, our sense of who we are and where we come from , our beliefs about why we are here - the meaning and purpose we see in our lives - and our connectedness to each other and to the world around us. Their study acknowledged that each student viewed spirituality in a unique way. The preliminary report found that students place a high value on spirituality broadly defined. For example, 70% say people can grow spiritually without being religious, and 88% say non-religious people can lead lives that are just as moral as religious values dictate. In addition, spirituality was associated with positive physical and psychological health, optimism, sense of personal empowerment, civic responsibility, empathy, racial and ethnic awareness and tolerance, academic performance, and satisfaction with college