Hello, and welcome to BU's leadership blog. Boston University is one of the few educational institutions now offering a Masters of Science in Leadership. This blog is intended to provide a forum for leadership topics and discussions for both the Boston University community and the broader public. It is our hope that through it we can make the subject of leadership more approachable and more meaningful.
One of the questions that we receive most often is "What does it mean to study leadership?" Leadership, like the weather, affects everyone but is not very clearly understood. Many people assume that leadership just happens without trying, or that people are either leaders or they are not. One of Yoda's famous lines in Star Wars was "Do or do not. There is no try." We could paraphrase this (with apologies to George Lucas) to say "Lead or do not lead. There is no try."
But there is reason to disagree with this. Leadership can be learned. There are models, approaches, and ways to understand what it means, and how it can be effective or ineffective. There are techniques that can be studied, and situational factors that can be integrated. One analogy is art school. Some people are born artists and are brilliant from an early age. Others may not be able to rub two crayons together even after years of training. But for the vast majority of people, a bit of study and hard work will improve their artistic ability. They may not be the next Rembrandt or put on a show at the MET, but they will be able to see improvement from when they began to when then finished training.
Leadership is similar. Some people are born leaders (good or bad- we'll get in to that in a future post), and some will never be leaders, but the vast majority of us can become better leaders through a bit of study, thought, observation, and work. The topic of leadership spans every industry and practice, from the heights of Google's boardroom to the bridge game table at a retirement community. We see it in school playgrounds, cubicles, family dynamics, and world politics.
It also touches on myriad other topics, from power, influence, and values to team dynamics, motivation, behavior, and personal and group psychology. In this blog we will be discussing the topic of leadership from every angle and vantage point. Not all of it may be applicable to you, but it is our hope that there will be some nuggets of wisdom or perspective that will be valuable to you as you go about your day.
Not everyone has the time, resources, or interest to pursue leadership as a field of study. But for those who do, we encourage you to explore both this blog and our website to learn more about Boston University's Masters of Science in Leadership program. Our students hail from all over the world to our location in Brussels, Belgium. They are doctors and lawyers, businesspeople and diplomats. Some are accepted right out of college, and others come with thirty-five years of work experience. This breadth of diversity fosters deep and meaningful discussions and classwork, and enables all students to come away with valuable, practical, and marketable skills and understanding.
For more information on our program, visit us at:
http://www.bu.edu/brussels/leadership/index.shtml
Also be sure to check out our upcoming Leadership Academy July 5-8, 2011. You can join Boston University in Brussels and the Taylor Institute, Franklin College Switzerland, in Lugano, Switzerland, to examine a three-tiered approach to leadership that will improve your ability to meet business objectives and enhance your success:
- Project Management—leading initiatives to successful completion and enabling your team to solve problems using a project management approach
- Crisis Management—creating a more sustainable business environment by planning for and better managing crises
- Human Capital—inspiring the best qualities in your project team, and motivating them to surpass their objectives
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| beautiful Lugano |
We hope you stop back often to the blog, or drop us a line to say hello at enroll@BU.edu.
