The Role of College in Developing Visionary Leadership for Societal Transformation and Innovation

• In Event: Exploring Leadership Skills and Theory for Millennials

Short Description

This study looked at contemporary, pioneering, visionary leaders to inform how colleges can support innovation and societal transformation by developing social change agents. The presentation will provide insights about how to better support, train, and cultivate the next generation of leaders who will face some of the greatest leadership challenges ever encountered in human history.

Detailed Abstract

Beyond employability, the U.S. higher education system is called upon by communities, organizations, the nation, and the world to produce imaginative leaders that can direct the nation through a nexus of political, economic, social and environmental problems now and in the future. In the environmental landscape, for example, the issues are staggering. Within the earth’s ecosystem, the representative population of 10,000 mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish declined by more than half (52%) from 1970 to 2014 (McLellan et al., 2014). For the past 40 years, the human population and human consumption have outpaced the earth’s biocapacity (McLellan et al., 2014). There are nine planetary boundaries which mark the threshold in which humanity can live without risk of environmental catastrophe at continental and global levels (Rockström et al., 2009). We have already crossed the threshold in three of these planetary boundaries (McLellan et al., 2014). This is a small sampling of the “wicked problems” faced in our communities and society at large.

As colleges and universities develop leaders for the future, this requires an awareness of how to navigate the complex social and environmental challenges that take transdisciplinary knowledge and creativity. The American education system was founded and developed as a means of extending oneself beyond narrow self-interests and to focus instead on the needs of society (Vinovskis, 1970). As the needs of society have transformed, colleges and universities are under intense scrutiny and accountability measures to develop students that are employable. Yet, the challenges of our time also call for visionary leadership. This study focuses on contemporary pioneering visionary leaders, their backgrounds, practices and how U.S. higher education can support innovation and societal transformation by developing visionary leaders.

Visionary and innovative leadership has been chosen in this study to address wicked issues as “it implies that the leader has a responsibility to disrupt current models and paradigms with more appropriate ones” (Banerjee, Ceri, & Leonardi, 2016, p. 55). The key differentiating aspect of visionary leadership compared to other styles of leadership is the emphasis on co-creation between leader and followers with the future as it emerges (Westley & Mintzberg, 1989; Scharmer, 2016). Westley and Mintzberg (1989) discuss visionary leadership as a two-way current between leader and follower where the new reality is co-created, rather than a unidirectional flow found in archaic hierarchical models of leadership. In this dynamic relationship, the leader is empowered by their followers, while also empowering their followers to advance the product, market, issue, process or organization. Visionary leadership relies on symbolism in a way that emotionally invests and moves followers to a new a reality.

Dugan (2011) further argues the need for evidence-based approaches to leadership development: “Evidence-based practice offers a powerful way to advocate for human and financial resources, align with the principles of good practice, document student learning, and justify the importance of leadership education” (p. 79). With the ever-increasing calls for accountability in higher education and the astounding challenges faced in local communities, nationally and on a global scale, the study and practice of leadership using evidence-based approaches would fill a significant gap in the literature and training of future leaders.

This study focuses on contemporary leaders who have transcended their self-focus to become visionary leaders that benefit greater society. Secondly, this presentation will provide insights into how colleges and universities can better support, train and cultivate the next generation of leaders who will face some of the greatest leadership challenges ever encountered in human history.

This work is based on my dissertation research, as well as developing social change agent curriculum for graduate students at a large research one institution in the Midwest.

Participant

• Kristi Kremers, University of Minnesota