Cultivating Students' Capacity for International Leadership

I had the incredible opportunity to co-edit the recently released volume 160 of NEW DIRECTIONS FOR STUDENT LEADERSHIP, Cultivating Students’ Capacity for International Leadership, with Dr. Darbi Leigh Roberts. We worked with a great group of authors who contributed insightful chapters that urge leadership educators to broaden their approaches to embrace our connected world, one that needs and welcomes diverse and new leadership.

The book is available through Wiley Publishers' On-Line Library. The Editors' Notes section is available without purchase and offers a broad framing of the purpose and content included in the book. The idea for the book emerged from our shared conviction as co-editors that, in order for the doors to leadership to open to a more diverse and younger population, leadership educators need to see the challenges of leadership in both a realistic and optimistic light. The discourse of failed leadership sends a very debilitating message - leadership is dirty, manipulative, and an altogether unsavory topic. Even those who presume to lead portray it through a negative lens; this approach reinforces their claim to legitimacy and supremacy as the "leaders" who can save us.

Many journalists and rank and file citizens are warning that democracy is at risk. It is only at risk if we walk away and reject the call to leadership. Leadership educators need to be advocates for engagement, not avoidance, and this book provides plenty of evidence that leadership matters, that it connects across cultural and national boundaries, and that there are tools and approaches to cultivate leadership that will make a difference.