Heart, Head, and Hands: Developing the Courage and Acumen to Lead

Session Submission Type: Panel Discussion

Short Description

Instead of constructing walls and isolating ourselves into familiar groups, we can choose models of leadership that are inclusive, democratic, and suited for tackling wicked problems. This session aims to help leadership educators and practitioners craft educational experiences that promote the common good. Drawing upon teaching, research, and lived experiences, panelists will show how practices make linkages among personal, team, organizational, and societal levels of leadership. The esteemed scholars on this panel — all of whom are featured in Barbara Crosby’s new book, Teaching Leadership — will together explore the heart, head, and hands
of leadership development.

Detailed Abstract

As mentioned in our conference theme, turbulence has become a hallmark of the current era and shows no sign of abating. Our world seems increasingly unpredictable, which may cause fear and anxiety. It may be hard to find the bravery, courage and willingness to embrace change and seek out people who are different from us. The most typical response may be to shun turbulence, and resist change (O’Toole, 1995).

One understandable impulse in turbulent times is to put up walls and isolate ourselves in familiar groups. If, as leadership scholars and practitioners we advocate alternative responses – building connections across boundaries, seeking out diverse stakeholders to share innovative ideas, building widely shared, sustainable visions for local and global futures – then we may benefit from focusing on what isn’t changing for us. What are our own core commitments? Where did they come from, what barriers have we encountered in carrying them out, and what sustains us in this effort?

This panel will focus on several notable scholars’ core commitments to leadership education and on development of leadership frameworks specifically aimed at tackling society’s most pressing challenges. The panelists’ insights are highlighted in the newly published book: [deleted to preserve anonymity].

The book emphasizes a relational, integrative approach (Uhl-Bien and Ospina, 2012) to leadership development and is intended to help novice and seasoned leadership educators alike better prepare themselves to craft educational experiences that respond to the world’s needs (Burns, 2003). The book integrates the “heart, head, and hands” of leadership practice. Heart encompasses the passions and core values that energize leadership work. Head refers to key leadership theories and research findings. Hands refers to the careful work of conducting learning experiences inside and outside the classroom.

The book draws on the author’s three decades as a leadership educator and scholar as well as insights from interviews with over two dozen accomplished leadership educators in the U.S. and elsewhere. Three of the interviewees will also be on the panel.

In the book, educators tell personal stories of how they responded to challenges and opportunities as they developed their leadership practice inside and outside the classroom. They introduce the people and experiences that shaped them. They explain how they learned to “welcome the stranger” into their classes and workshops. They describe the leadership theories that are foundational to their work and that they themselves have helped develop.

The book is in five parts focusing on the following key practices of leadership and leadership development:
• Using personal narrative to foster self-understanding and commitment. This involves telling one’s own story and enabling others to tell theirs. The author and interviewees explain how their leadership/followership journeys have been influenced by family, gender, race/ethnicity, economic circumstances, religion, education, etc.
• Hosting and hospitality. Leadership educators must be versed in welcoming diverse groups of people and able to help these people build productive relationships. This part emphasizes tried-and-true methods for building learning communities.
• Tackling organizational and societal problems. This part emphasizes habits of mind, frameworks, and skills that can help educators and students build collective capacity to respond effectively to challenges in their organizations and communities.
• Strengthening citizenship. Educators describe their efforts to link leadership, citizenship, and the common good.
• Assessing, coaching and mentoring. This part emphasizes the use of formal and informal assessments, supported by coaches and mentors, to help educators and students alike become better leaders.

The author sees each practice as building on the others. They all are vital to leadership, defined as “inspiring and mobilizing others to undertake collective action in pursuit of the common good.” [reference withheld for review process]

At the opening of the session, the chair will set the stage by asking the audience to reflect on why they care about leadership development in these turbulent times. The panelists will then describe their own journeys as leadership educators. Following their remarks, audience members will be invited to engage in a reflective exercise. They will be prompted to identify a core commitment that undergirds their leadership practice and then share that commitment with at least one other person in the audience. The session will conclude with questions and comments from audience members.

Participants should expect to gain:
• An opportunity to reflect on and share their own core commitments
• Ideas for fostering personal and collective leadership development in classrooms, workshops, and the community
• Awareness of how a relational, integrative approach to leadership education can help diverse groups tackle wicked problems and opportunities

Sub Unit

• Public Leadership

Chair

• Ariel L. Kaufman

Presenters

• Barbara C. Crosby, University of Minnesota

• Sonia M. Ospina, New York University

• Ronald E. Riggio, Claremont McKenna College

• Georgia Sorenson, Moller Centre, Churchill College, University of Cambridge