Chapter 1: Developing the Interdisciplinary Leader: A Wholistic Leadership Approach

In this chapter, the author argues that combinations of leadership styles, traits, attributes, integrated with conceptually meaningful ways, are more likely to develop and shape aspiring 21st century interdisciplinary leaders than additive or independent contributions of several single factors. Furthermore, a defining core of this approach is the ability to flexibly lead in different ways across disparate organizational domains thereby creating new ways of thinking and new knowledge. Finally, the author proposes a wholistic leadership development framework (WLDF) that specifies influences on developing leadership processes and performance. The framework recognizes that the economic, ethical, and cognitive/emotional crises in contemporary society call for a deeper quest for meaning and individual wholeness and provides an inclusive pathway for aspiring leaders to follow. Without this completeness, the interdisciplinary leader may enjoy some success, but not the transformational success that leads to lasting results.