A deeply insightful approach to cultivating leaders of character centered on the arts and humanities
What does it mean to lead? Whom do we consider to be leaders? And how might viewing leadership through the many lenses of the humanities expand our understanding of how it is imagined, represented, and enacted?
Drawing on insights from eminent scholars in the classics, philosophy, religion, literature, history, art, music, and the theater, The Arts of Leading reveals the power of the arts and humanities to unsettle common assumptions about leadership and offer new contexts. Rather than instrumentalizing the arts and humanities or reducing them to mere management resources, this series of thoughtful and refreshing essays engages a litany of diverse and nuanced perspectives to uncover alternative ways of imagining and embodying leadership across different historical, moral, political, and cultural contexts.
By exploring how a wide range of disciplines can illuminate and humanize complex aspects of leadership that are often obscured in a discourse hooked on reductive paradigms and quick fixes, The Arts of Leading invites leaders, scholars, and citizens to expand their practice of leadership in our ever-evolving world.
Reviews
"As a performing artist who had an unintentional pathway to academic leadership, I would have relished this compendium of essays forty years ago! At a time when there is so much emphasis on business innovation and inventive problem-solving, this book reminds us that it is through active engagement with the arts and humanities that one acquires the habits of mind and character necessary to be a truly authentic leader."—Ronald A. Crutcher, president emeritus and professor, University of Richmond
"This book skillfully emphasizes the crucial role of humanities in shaping exceptional leaders, seamlessly merging age-old wisdom with modern perspectives of human nature, culture, and ethics."—Santiago Íñiguez, president, IE University
"This eloquent and profound collection examines leadership through the looking glass of the humanities. The book shows us leaders as reflections of our passions and products of our imagination. The history articles tell us there isn't much new about leaders and followers. At the same time, the arts chapters chronicle their fraught relationships along with their tragic and sublime imperfections and perfections. I heartily recommend this book to scholars and anyone dismayed by today's leaders. The humanities help us make sense of our world and remind us that, like almost everything, bad leaders don't last forever."—Joanne B. Ciulla, professor and director, Institute for Ethical Leadership
"A fascinating collection of essays premised on the idea that the arts and humanities show and support ethical leadership in its many forms, cultures, and contexts. In a time of rising polarization and tech-fueled disruption, when the public is yearning for trustworthy leaders, The Arts of Leading is essential reading."—Daniel R. Porterfield, president and CEO, Aspen Institute
About the Author
Edward Brooks is executive director of the Oxford Character Project and director of the Programme for Global Leadership in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. He is also cofounder of Oxford's SDG Impact Lab and coeditor of Cultivating Virtue in the University (2022) and Literature and Character Education in Universities (2022). Michael Lamb is the F. M. Kirby Foundation Chair of Leadership and Character, executive director of the Program for Leadership and Character, and associate professor of interdisciplinary humanities at Wake Forest University. He is also an associate fellow of the Oxford Character Project and author of A Commonwealth of Hope (2022) and coeditor of Cultivating Virtue in the University (2022) and Everyday Ethics (Georgetown University Press, 2019). Elleke Boehmer is Professor of World Literature in English at the University of Oxford. She is a founding figure in the field of colonial and postcolonial literary studies, and internationally known for her research in the anglophone literatures of empire and anti-empire.
