Chapter 2: Innovating Leadership Education: How Business Schools and Universities Need to Innovate Sustainable Strategies in Leadership Education

Since the financial crisis, there has been ongoing debate about market weaknesses and the training of tomorrow’s business leaders. Leadership education must tackle difficult global, technical, and ethical challenges. In this chapter, the author wishes to clarify how teaching institutions must innovate to deal with these problems and contribute to a sustainable future. First, the author will identify a conceptual framework for both leadership and education. The definition of leadership in entrepreneurship and management includes the notion that real leaders must create something new and lead their followers into an innovative future.

According to the humanist ideal, leaders should learn to be autonomous, rational, and responsible persons with creative personalities. After this discussion, the author will compare these findings with the content of various highly ranked leadership programs. The author will show that they do not impart real-world information and that the skills they do promote are largely theoretical. Their programs should place more importance on ethics as well as on globalism. Neither critical thinking nor an emphasis on technology or international focus is included. Instead of helping students become creative personalities, most business schools focus on career goals. The author concludes that leadership education must be transformed to bring forth innovative leaders who think sustainably.