Sound Learning for Leadership

Despite over a hundred years of scientific study, we still lack a good answer to the problem of how to teach and learn leadership. Peel away our modern penchant for abstract theory, and we find that learning leadership is essentially a problem of human moral development—of becoming morally mature and possessing the virtues of character requisite to the responsibilities and challenges of leadership. This three-credit one-semester course takes an eclectic approach drawing on the experience and wisdom of the best classical and modern “thinkers and doers” of leadership. The emphasis is formative: to broaden and deepen students’ understanding of the practical and moral complexities of leadership and to help students begin to cultivate in a serious way the virtues of character and moral maturity that will make them worthy of leadership. The format is more like a developmental seminar than a traditional academic class: materials, class discussion, assignments and evaluation are all designed for students to make a close, critical, and personal study of leadership culminating in a personal leadership philosophy. The class is required for the Military Leadership minor but is open to all students with an interest in leadership, virtues, and character development.