By Sandra J. Peart, Dean and E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professor in Leadership Studies and President of the Jepson Scholars Foundation
Experts have always tried to predict the future of work in the face of technological advancements. For example, David Ricardo added his famous “Machinery” chapter to the 1821 edition of his Principles of Political Economy, as an attempt to work out
Read moreFor leadership scholars, two key questions are when and how to effect improvement, and whether such improvements should be imposed top-down or emerge bottom-up from ordinary people. Economists have struggled with the tension between social reform and the liberal desire
Read moreImagine the voting rule: A person will vote on a proposal that helps you, the same way she’d vote on a proposal that helps herself. What if all people in a democracy followed this rule? In a paper published in
Read moreAthletes, trainers, and sports journalists frequently invoke a connection between athletic performance and leadership ability. Certainly, we have observed many athletes who demonstrate leadership skills at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies. Tim Bezbatchenko, who visited the University and spoke
Read moreMany leadership scholars argue that people who rely on coercion to obtain results are not leaders but rather despots. Tyrants are not leaders; by definition, leaders are moral. While this taxonomy is useful for examining truly persuasive leadership, it neglects
Read moreIt’s commonplace for leadership advocates and scholars to include listening in their lists of “what makes a good leader.” But why would a person in a position of leadership need to listen? If a group chooses a leader because they
Read more“Boss.” That simple word still startles me. In the academy, professors rarely acknowledge they have a boss; as an assistant professor, I thought I would be the architect of my career. The department chair was a nuisance to be tolerated
Read moreMany leaders seek to create factions because it is easier to lead a group of people who are fired up about those outside the group. Think about National Socialism or a leader’s call to fight the enemy. Churchill, Patton—these are
Read moreAlex Rodriguez, Lance Armstrong, and Bernie Madoff. What do they have in common? Trying to obtain high returns without regard for the rules—cheating. Pressures to bend the rules at colleges and elsewhere are enormous. We would all like to find a risk-free
Read moreOn the heels of a most successful year at the helm of the Toronto Football Club, University of Richmond alumnus Tim Bezbatchenko, ’04, recently returned to campus for a dialogue about leadership. Tim, who — it’s no coincidence — minored
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