In an increasingly complex and interconnected world, it is critical to understand the tangled and interdependent nature of our current challenges, work collectively to envision just and equitable shared futures, and evolve leadership education to embrace and effectively address these challenges. In this article, we discuss the concepts of sustainability, systems thinking, and the Inner Development Goals within the context of leadership education and present ways of aligning the practices of each to lead change. Using cases from business and leadership development, this article offers suggestions for how we can focus on the individual and collective work needed to bring about lasting, sustainable change.
The complexities of our contemporary world demand innovative approaches to leadership education that equip individuals to navigate and effectively influence complex adaptive systems. This descriptive case study explores the Global Food Systems Leadership (GFSL) secondary major at Kansas State University; a program designed to develop systems-focused leadership capacities through an interdisciplinary framework. Although much of the existing leadership education literature emphasizes individual skill building or disciplinary silos, GFSL addresses a critical gap by centering collective, systems-thinking oriented leadership education within the context of global food challenges. Drawing on collective expertise across multiple disciplines, GFSL integrates students' diverse academic and personal backgrounds, fostering collaboration, empathy, and systems thinking for systems change. This article examines the philosophical and pedagogical foundations of the program, its focus on interdisciplinary collaboration, and its impact on preparing students to address global food systems challenges. We argue that such a program not only cultivates individual leadership capacities but also provides a replicable model of collective and systems-based leadership education. Consequently, it contributes to expanding the scholarship on leadership pedagogy and offers actionable insights for educators aiming to become agents of change within their institutions and communities.
This article explores the concept of systems thinking as a crucial skill for leadership students navigating a complex, interconnected world. We assert that incorporating systems thinking into leadership education can help individuals better understand the structure, interrelationships, and dynamics of various systems. The article outlines key systems thinking language, principles, and skills that support systems literacy, then illustrates their application through the presentation of three case studies: Jacinda Ardern's leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Darryll Pines's approach to engineering education, and Patagonia's sustainable business model. The article concludes by discussing how systems language and tools can be integrated into diverse learning environments and noting considerations for educators as they introduce systems thinking into their work.
Classroom as Organization (CAO) is an experiential methodology that recognizes the class as a system, enabling students to engage with content while practicing leadership behaviors and strategies. CAO builds leadership capabilities through which students engage in a complex systems approach as they address leadership issues in a real-world context. This article provides an overview of CAO in leadership education as it aligns with a systems approach in its delivery and content. The authors will provide examples of different CAO structures and purposes in their own leadership classrooms to illustrate the pedagogical method in real life contexts. Finally, the authors will present a list of considerations for leadership educators who are new to using CAO in the leadership education classroom.
As the challenges addressed in leadership education become increasingly complex, it is essential to develop and employ new skills and tools which help individuals and groups make sense of the complexity. In this paper, we introduce system dynamics as a lens for leadership education stakeholders to understand and navigate complex problems and systems. Then, we demonstrate two practical entry points into system dynamics practice. Through thick description and an example case study, we conclude by describing how to use and facilitate rich pictures and causal loop diagrams to make sense of complex problems.
Focusing on the topical area of the ILA General Principles for Leadership Development Programs, number three, content, this article aims to expand the conceptualization and meaning of the idea of content and broaden the knowledge of content through a critical perspective. Additionally, the purpose of the article is to offer ideas for leadership educators and provide them with a road map of how to build the critical leadership capacity of learners, centering the discussion on adding content for programs centered in three important conversations: (a) the need for more relational and collective perspectives; (b) acknowledging issues of power, participation, and democracy within organizations; and (c) emphasizing views that go beyond Western perspectives that promote diversity. Adding content related to these conversations in the field into leadership programs and curricula within organizations and schools can have an emancipatory potential that contributes to promoting social and cognitive justice for all.
International Leadership Association's General Principles for Leadership Programs is a fluid document designed to provide resources to create, redesign, and assess leadership programs. This article provides a broad introduction to the General Principles for Leadership Programs, including the history and a brief overview of the five main areas the principles use as pillars in advancing leadership programs. These areas include context, conceptual framework, content, learning, metrics, outcomes, and assessment.
This article provides an example of how a leadership studies program has addressed the call for attention to conceptual frameworks as outlined in the International Leadership Association's (2021) General Principles for Leadership Programs. Faculty members from the Staley School of Leadership at Kansas State University share lessons learned from integrating two frameworks to inform curricular design, delivery, and assessment. The key insight presented is that when leadership educators thoughtfully apply conceptual frameworks, powerful learning environments can be cultivated to prepare learners to exercise leadership for the common good.
The International Leadership Association's General Principles for Leadership Programs provides a useful frame for developing, delivering, and assessing leadership programs. In doing so, it is important for leadership scholars, educators, and practitioners to acknowledge and reflect on the complexities of our world, which moves toward strategies to navigate future situations. This article explores the possibilities for the future, including how to build generative, high-capacity, and high-efficacy leaders, and how the General Principles can provide guidance in an ever-evolving global society.
"To advance the practice and study of leadership for a better world" is the clear and stated mission of the International Leadership Association (ILA). The organization offers a commitment to the advancement of leadership as a broader commitment to the advancement of the global community. Generous in scope, this is cultivated through a community of global membership. Tending to a mission and principles with an eye toward internationalization, global practice, and leadership, we also must contend with the current tenor of US institutions and policy, colonial legacies, and current practices. As educators, our work is in the educational spaces, classrooms, research, programming, learning, and practice. The principles offer us an avenue to advance with global practice top of mind.
Leadership programs establish relevance and garner public trust in higher education by demonstrating their usefulness to communities and society across sectors. In this article, the General Principles were leveraged as a tool to make sense of a pedagogy of practice applied to coursework and programs over the course of programmatic growth. This article will explore how the principles were applied to build practice orientations to knowledge. Learning as a practical application brings knowledge into the field and requires practical application through understanding and attendance to cultural capital. As collectives navigate the social hierarchies and realities of connecting knowledge, a core practice of how humans make sense of knowing by doing, the General Principles are a tool.
The depth of work required and the relationships built in the process of agreeing to a conceptual framework for leadership learning are daunting. Whatever expenditure of effort that is required, achieving a comfortable consensus pays off in expanding the reach and the potential impact of leadership learning initiatives. The ILA General Principles for Leadership Programs advocate conceptual frameworks that are unique and purposeful for specific organizational contexts and include responding to questions related to centrality and coherence. Aligning with organizational context and striving for centrality and coherence then allows the framework to serve as a catalyst for constant improvement and expansion.
ILA General Principles for Leadership Programs were originally conceived to advocate approaches to leadership cultivation that would increase visibility, encourage greater cooperation, and be applicable across diverse organizations and cultural contexts. Subsequent to their release as a concept paper, the General Principles have been disseminated and tested in a variety of ways and are now promoted as a model for coherent and comprehensive leadership program design and implementation. While the General Principles achieved some success, this concluding article proposes that economic, social, and political changes must be considered when using the General Principles and that it is essential that leadership educators commit to greater consensus and coherence in their shared work.
In this article, we discuss the need for the field of leadership education (LE) to employ detailed outcomes for assessing its learning interventions, along with rigorous metrics in which to measure such outcomes. We define assessment, outcomes, and metrics, and provide numerous examples of how each can be built and improved upon across a variety of leadership programs and courses. Lastly, we provide a number of specific methodological suggestions for leadership educators to consider implementing in their programs that represent quality practices in assessing leadership learning and leader development.
This article explores the Learning section of the International Leadership Association General Principles for Leadership Programs, examining how situational factors influence leadership education, design, and implementation. We analyze six key elements as follows: learner characteristics, educator identities, learning environments, goal setting, feedback mechanisms, and teaching activities. Drawing from leadership education literature and practitioner experience, we demonstrate how these elements interconnect to create transformative leadership learning experiences. The article offers theoretical foundations and practical applications to help leadership educators develop intentional, learner-centered programs that foster leadership capacity while considering critical contextual factors. This approach enables significant learning that transforms learners' understanding of leadership theory and practice.
The International Leadership Association's General Principles for Leadership Programs is a document designed to provide resources to create, redesign, and assess leadership programs. This article provides a broad introduction to the Venn diagram developed by the ILA Committee for the Advancement of Leadership Programs (CALP). It is intended to help leadership educators, taking their program context into account, introduce and explain how to provide the necessary depth needed for good program design. ILA's Advancement of Leadership Programs project works to advance the ongoing leadership learning efforts of the General Principles and Guiding Questions living documents on programmatic development and review. CALP has been charged with working with ILA members to develop the best ways to use these tools in our work. This article is intended to help you understand the many resources available when looking at the delivery of leadership programs. In addition to the General Principles, we provide other resources that can aid in creating and redesigning leadership programs.
Metrics, outcomes, and assessment are important, yet often forgotten, elements of effective leadership programs. This article will provide an overview of metrics, outcomes, and assessment in regard to leadership programs. The article will then provide example programs and practical guidance on using metrics, outcomes, and assessment in leadership program design. Considerations for telling the data story of leadership programs and future implications for practice are shared to conclude the article.
In this article, the authors present and engage with the conceptual and theoretical underpinning of leadership education and leadership development in Africa. Specifically, leadership education programs which are focusing on nurturing a new generation of leaders, adept at navigating the complexities of a globalized world, while remaining deeply rooted in their national and local heritage. They locate African leadership theory and praxis in the context of change, and examine how the International Leadership Association (ILA) General Principles for Leadership Programs (2021) provides an organizing framework for the redesigned Executive MBA program at the African Leadership University in Kigali, Rwanda.
This article explores context as a critical component of leadership learning and leadership program design. Building from the foundation established in the General Principles for Leadership Programs (International Leadership Association), we further define context, including looking at cultural, historical, ideological, personal, and social contexts. The concept of context in leadership program development and how to use context as a general principle is explored deeply in this article.
This article explores the content application of the ILA General Principles for Leadership Programs. Introducing the leadership content design (LCD) framework, the authors explore leadership content application through a robust co-curricular example of the Hargis Leadership Institute. The article demonstrates a pathway for developing transformational leadership learning content through the implementation of a learner-centered approach to content design. By leveraging leadership theory, this article demonstrates how leadership educators can innovate to create intentional and relevant content.
