As western leadership traditions struggle to find answers to major global problems of poverty, sustainability, economic stability and health, at The Leadership Trust we have launched a project which aims to review leadership wisdom and ask the questions, ‘Have we got it right? and ‘What are we missing?’.

Western-centric leadership

The majority of leaders across the globe today have been conditioned in some way by western and US-centric leadership theories and methodologies. This thinking has been driven through our global business schools and business cultures, often to the exclusion of non-western traditions and cultures and the valuable insights and wisdom these may have to offer.

Hidden leadership wisdoms

Together with colleagues from around the world, we have launched a leadership research project which seeks to deepen understanding of leadership wisdom from different cultures and societies around the world. This leadership wisdom lies hidden in ancient, indigenous societies and cultures and is a highly dispersed body of knowledge, which, we argue, has hitherto been under-researched. We believe that a ‘worldly leader’ today needs more than western / US centric leadership theories, and have set out to uncover these alternative wisdoms.

'Worldly' defined

Our definition of ‘worldly’ is shaped by Mintzberg and Gosling’s Harvard Business Review article ‘The Five Mindsets of a Manager’ (2003) which argues for a shift from a global to a ‘worldly’ mindset. Instead of looking at the world from a distance, they propose a focus from close-up on the many different worlds within worlds that make up our globe.

New ways of thinking about leadership

Our project builds on this idea, by adding to leadership wisdom through insights into knowledge, ethics and action practised in different ways by different cultures, and in societies both ancient and modern around the world. This project seeks to uncover and disseminate radically different ways of thinking about the process of leadership that may help to address the complex challenges of today’s world.

Summit themes

Find out more about the Project themes to date, from the opening Academic Symposium to the latest Summit. Inlcuding podcasts, video and images from the events

2010: "Building a leadership ethic of responsibility and conviction"

2009: An International Summit for an exploration of leadership wisdoms

2009 Symposium:

Want to know more?

The project is led by Professor Sharon Turnbull, Director, Centre for Applied Leadership Research, contact Sharon for more information.