Chris Leupold, associate professor of psychology and Faculty Leadership Fellow, recently delivered two presentations at Association of Leadership Educators Annual Conference which was held July 11-13 in Denver, CO.
His first presentation, “Authentic Leadership in Literature: Teaching Leadership Via the Humanities,” was a practice paper which described a course that he regularly teaches in Elon’s General Studies Program (GST 392: Authentic Leadership in Literature). Authentic leadership, popularized by former Isabella Cannon Leadership Distinguished Visiting Scholar and former Medtronic CEO Bill George, refers to a style of morals- and values-based leadership that that aligns a leader’s core values with serving the mission of his or her organization and followers. In his presentation, Leupold described how the course incorporates character analyses from classic literary works such as “The Great Gatsby,” “Billy Budd Sailor”, and other novels and plays as a means to highlight leadership theories and models. This infusion of classic literature into leadership and management courses is a growing national trend in higher education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
The second presentation, “Student Perceptions and Prioritization of Leadership Attributes,” discussed two separate studies that examined which leadership attributes were deemed as most critical by undergraduate students. Kim Epting, assistant professor of psychology, and former Elon psychology major Kristen Riggs ’10 were co-authors, as was James Barton, formerly of Hampton-Sydney College. Both studies found that students rated integrity as the most important quality; surprisingly, students also tended to rate characteristics related to task execution higher than interpersonal qualities.
Anyone interested in the academic study of leadership at Elon should contact Leupold (cleupold@elon.edu), who is also the coordinator of Elon’s leadership studies minor. Individuals interested in learning more about Elon’s co-curricular Isabella Cannon Leadership Program should contact Steve Mencarini (smencarini@elon.edu), the program’s director.