Leadership and the Quest for Certainty
Keith Grint explores the collision of uncertainty, perceptions of leadership effectiveness, and decision-making in his latest ILA blog.
leadership scholarship
Utilizing Humble Inquiry to Achieve Humble Leadership
In today’s VUCA world, leaders can’t simply “figure things out.” They must depend on colleagues and followers to provide needed information and expertise. To be successful, Ed and Peter Schein argue, leaders must be humble and engage in humble inquiry.
Does Size Matter for Leadership?
Keith Grint ranges from Shakespeare’s Henry V to tweets from Donald Trump to expose the invisible privilege associated with being tall and the assumption that has long prevailed in human society that greater height correlates with attributions of leadership, particularly among men.
The Colors of Leadership
Keith Grint explores the way color — in almost all its formats and embodiments — is deeply implicated in leadership whether in terms of how it’s signified and practiced, how it’s used to create and enforce status and hierarchy, and even how it’s used in certain leadership development models to code capacities.
Democracy Is Being Undermined by Stealth: Reflections on the Demagogue and the Failed Washington Putsch
Democracy expert Matt Qvortrup provides insightful analysis into recent events: “What we saw in Washington, D.C. on the 6th of January was a Putsch egged on by a Demagogue. That is not opinion. It is not hyperbole. It is a strict fact.”
Permission to Riot: Leadership and the Role of ‘les Enfants Perdus’
Keith Grint places the events of 6 January in the USA within the historical framework of les enfants perdus. With democracy at stake, can U.S. Republicans become the “heroes of retreat”?
Leaders Who Lust in Our Midst
The leadership industry — leadership centers and institutes, leadership programs and courses, leadership teachers and trainers — sells moderation. In fact, sometimes leadership, including leadership that is exceptionally effective, is quite the opposite. Sometimes leaders are excessive.
Gendering Leadership in Times of COVID: The Case of the “Strong Man”
The striking image of a maskless Donald Trump standing defiantly on the White House balcony on his return from hospital exemplifies the so-called “strong leadership” associated with men and masculinity. Why is the notion of the male strong leader still so influential and persistent?
Post-COVID 2019 Academic Pointers: On Social Innovation, Engaged Scholarship, and Learning Leadership
Given a changed context, academic efforts must increasingly rely on evidence-based, scientific knowledge. To ensure its relevancy, we must also ask: What does it mean anyway? This question becomes even more important as wicked problems increase exponentially in nature, scope, and impact.
Uncharted: How to Map the Future Together
“The only thing we know about the future is that we do not know the future.” What implications does that have for leadership and the structures of our organizations, particularly amid rapidly moving crisis? How does this change the relationship between leaders, followers, and the public at large?
The COVID-19 Crisis as a Test of Followership
Is it not time we stopped asking what leaders and science can do to fight COVID-19 and ask instead what followers should be doing? Accepting that we are facing a complex and unpredictable situation, how do we stop calling for simple solutions, learn to live with uncertainty, and take responsibility for our own actions?
False Positives: A Pandemic of Prozac Leadership
Being positive can facilitate transformational leadership but taken to extremes it can become insincere and manipulative. Excessive positivity constitutes a significant barrier to reflection and learning. By silencing critical voices, Prozac leadership has hindered our leaders’ response to the pandemic.