• Policy & Research
    • Campus Climate and Inclusion
    • Minority Serving Institutions
    • Student Support and Success
  • Leadership
    • The ACE Women’s Network
  • International
  • Attainment & Innovation

Let’s Educate More and Better Leaders—The World Needs Them

April 27, 2022

By Scott Cowen

Leadership is a fascinating phenomenon: it seems rare even when there is a plentitude of it. After a nearly 50-year career in higher education, decades on corporate and nonprofit boards, and years of teaching an undergraduate course on leadership, I have concluded that we need more and better leaders and leadership studies should be an integral part of the undergraduate curriculum.

It is not that there is a shortage of leaders—people in leadership positions are all around us and even those not in formal leadership roles can easily emerge as leaders in the era of social media. However, the kind of leadership we need in our organizations, local communities, the government, our country, and in the world seems to be in short supply. We commonly complain about a general dearth of leadership, point with outrage at those deemed to be bad leaders, and are horrified by examples of destructive leadership.

At the same time, we worship leaders whose success and character inspire us. We know well that good leadership has great potential to make things right; give our work and lives meaning; and foster stability, unity, innovation, and equity. If our hopes and dreams rest on the promise of leadership, shouldn’t leadership studies in college be an explicit and widely implemented strategic priority?

For decades, colleges have been eagerly marketing themselves as the places that make the leaders our world needs—for good reason. Not only is the college experience naturally saturated with opportunities for deepening one’s passions, learning and growing, and stepping into leadership roles inside and outside the classroom, but it also commonly involves access to at least a few elective courses on leadership as well as co-curricular programs and centers dedicated to leadership development. A growing number of colleges have degree-granting programs that allow students to major or minor in leadership.

Still, I am familiar with only two cases in which the study and practice of leadership have been integrated into the collegiate core curriculum.

Centering leadership: The nation’s service academies and Sweet Briar College

West Point and the Naval, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine academies are well known for having leadership at their center, but a small liberal arts college for women that last made headlines when its alumnae saved from certain death in the face of seemingly hopeless financial problems in 2015 may be a rather unlikely pioneer. As I learned from leading Tulane University in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina though, an institutional near-death experience breeds bold innovation. It is clearly not in spite of its major existential crisis, but rather because of it, that Sweet Briar has emerged as a remarkably forward-thinking and daring player in the field of leadership education and development. Two years after its shocking closure announcement and subsequent rescue, Sweet Briar unveiled a core curriculum focused on examining and defining women’s leadership in the twenty-first century with an emphasis on experiential learning and core courses such as Decisions in a Data-Driven World and Sustainable Systems.

To have more great leaders, we need to empower the next generation to grapple with the theories and realities of leadership. All of our students should develop a nuanced understanding of what leadership is and isn’t. They need to understand the complex process that is leadership and the fact that anyone—not just a select few—can lead. We need them to know the difference between transactional and transformational leadership as well as how to identify and address technical versus adaptive challenges. They should comprehend why ethics matter in the context of leadership (a helpful definition by Joanne B. Ciulla describes leadership as a “complex moral relationship between people, based on trust, obligation, commitment, emotion, and a shared vision of the good”). And they should value the powerful and important role followers play—for the world also needs more exemplary followers, and there is no leadership without followership.

Leadership education can’t be optional or take place on the periphery of the college experience; it should be an integral part of the undergraduate curriculum. I have experience with embedding a field that was previously considered “nice but not essential” into the core curriculum, and I know it can be done. After Hurricane Katrina, faced with destruction and the herculean effort of rebuilding our university and city, public service became a lifeline. My leadership team and I realized that doing good and engaging with the community should no longer be something students could opt in to if they felt like it; it should be expected. We became the first major private research university in the country to require public service for graduation. I believe a parallel argument can be made for incorporating leadership into the core curriculum at colleges across the country.

Our world is more complex, fragile, and unpredictable than ever before. Without the right leadership (and plenty of it), our institutions, democracy, and economy don’t stand a chance. We would be prudent to take a closer look at what longstanding experts like the U.S. Air Force Academy and trailblazers like Sweet Briar College are doing to put leadership front and center in their students’ education and growth. Much is at stake, and anyone can emerge as a leader to capture people’s attention and imagination—but it is paramount that the next generation of leaders can tell the difference between good and bad leadership. They must have the capability to lead (and follow) with competence and awareness.

Tags: civic engagement leadership value of higher education

6 Responses to “Let’s Educate More and Better Leaders—The World Needs Them”

  1. Sheila Smith

    Amen!

    April 30th, 2022 Reply
  2. Mary Rinehart

    I agree with this article and am the beneficiary of a Sweet Briar education. But, I began learning what leadership was all about at my prep school The Madeira School in McLean VA. It starts early. Check out this incredible school. Thanks for your article.

    April 30th, 2022 Reply
  3. Ellen Apperson Brown

    It is thrilling and affirming to read this sort of praise for my college! I have always felt that my education was very effective in helping me to learn to think critically, and to find a purpose in my life. Among the challenges I am proud to have tackled are several administrative jobs at non-profits, and it is so satisfying to look back at all we accomplished. I’m glad to have pursued several advanced degrees, too, and like to think that I have become proficient as a public historian. Hope future generations of Sweet Briar grads will feel the same way!

    May 1st, 2022 Reply
  4. JudithEllen

    Thank you for sharing my thoughts, with appreciation! Let’s start including leadership skills at an earlier age & convene a symposium now devoted to the subject. We have all witnessed “leadership skills” of one sort or another on our school playgrounds, time to flip the switch & create compassionate & mindful children & eliminate the gangs, bullies, hatred & lack of respect that is learned at the very earliest ages. My best to all educators & role models who exemplify liove & only the best for the global greater good. If not us, then who? If not now, then when?

    May 3rd, 2022 Reply
  5. Charles Krulak

    Sweet Briar is a remarkable school….a hotbed of Leadership training and education. They have recognized that training Is preparation for the expected and education is preparation for the unexpected. and their young ladies are effectively merging both! The Sweet Briar curriculum is definitely preparing women to live lives of significance…our Country and World will be better for that!!!

    I salute President Woo, the Professors, and Board!

    Semper Fidelis,
    Charles C. Krulak
    General US Marine Corps (Ret.)
    31st Commandant of the Marine Corps

    May 8th, 2022 Reply
  6. Katherine Barrett Baker

    Being a leader is hard. Every day hard. Every leader has their own style relating to their personality. How they were raised. Their community. Leaders surround themselves with, or hire, persons like themselves. Leaders set the tone. They set an example in every action and reaction they make. Leaders even set an example in listening to others. Pausing, looking and listening. Sweet Briar College is a supportive, small community like family, where you learn to honor and respect, to practice patience and kindness, and to always have forgiveness. Because everyone, even leaders, make mistakes. The important thing is to get up each morning and positively move forward. To finish what you started. SBC teaches you to that you can study your way out of any bad situation life throws at you, that you can learn a new marketable skill or two, or three. You can lead in your own life and change direction at any time of your choosing. Girls who grow into women supporting each other. Sweet Briar friends are a support group for the rest of your life. Next May, I’ll attend my 40th Reunion. Seems like a few lifetimes ago! Known these women since we were all 18 years old. This is Sweet Briar’s immeasurable brick and mortar gift: life long supportive friends.

    September 10th, 2022 Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Share this Post
Share this...
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
About the Author
Scott Cowen

Scott Cowen holds the title of president emeritus and distinguished university chair at Tulane University. He was Tulane’s president from 1998 to 2014 and served as interim president of Case Western Reserve University during the 2020–21 academic year.  

Recent posts
  • Mapping the Ecosystem of Alternative Postsecondary Education Providers
  • An Unrecognized Bias Contributing to the Gender Gap in the College Presidency
  • Capacity Building for Shared Equity Leadership
  • Working Learners and Work Colleges: Innovating at the Intersection of Education and Life
  • Redefining Prestige
See More

American Council on Education
1 Dupont Circle, NW
Washington, DC 20036

202-939-9300

  • About Us
  • Contributors
  • ACE In The News
  • Contact

Sign up for the ACE Newsletter

The latest news from ACE, including the most recent blog posts from Higher Education Today, free to your inbox each Tuesday.

Sign up to subscribe to Higher Education & National Affairs (HENA), ACE’s biweekly newsletter covering events in Washington that impact higher education and ACE’s activities in international education, leadership, research and analysis, and adult learning and attainment.

Sign Up


© 2023 American Council on Education. All Rights Reserved.
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use