Research
My research adopts a virtues-based, character-focused approach to leadership development. I’m passionate about bridging the theory / practice divide through creating industry-relevant learning opportunities that offer tangible benefits to leaders and their organizations.
Our new book on Good Leadership is now available for pre-order
Good leadership is something every leader and organization should strive towards. This book serves as a pivotal resource in encouraging the understanding and practice of leadership and highlights how good leadership is anchored in the rich philosophy and science of virtue. Through a diverse range of perspectives, the book highlights the importance of leading with virtue, unpacks what it means to be a virtuous leader, and outlines practical strategies for developing and practicing good leadership.
Recent Publications
Crisis leadership
In this paper, we review what is known - and what remains unknown - about crisis leadership. By synthesizing decades of research, we distil 8 dimensions of crises and 5 key crisis leadership competencies.
The virtues of effective crisis leadership: what managers can learn from how women heads of state led in the first wave of COVID-19
In this paper, we took a virtues-lens to analyse the national addresses given by women heads of state from around the globe, as they imposed – and then eased – restrictions around the first wave of COVID-19. Women leaders led better through COVID-19 because they led with virtues. Virtues-based strategies can help all managers lead better through crises. The key crisis leadership virtues are humanity, justice, prudence, courage, and temperance. Clear, practical lessons for managers and leaders are provided.
Being explicit about virtues: analysing TED Talks and integrating scholarship to advance virtues-based leadership development
The word ‘virtues’ sounds funny to many ears. For many of us, words like virtue, prudence, and temperance don’t sound right in a modern business context. But, the fact is, virtues are an integral part of who we are – they make up the very fabric of our character, even if we rarely talk about them or call them by name. In this paper, I took a virtues-lens to the top TED talks on good leadership. My analysis illustrates how virtues are imbued throughout the ways good leadership is described, suggesting that to develop and practice good leadership – we need to develop and practice virtues.
The Virtues Project: an approach to developing good leaders
Within scholarship, it is increasingly acknowledged that virtues represent an impactful, robust way to develop leader character and leader effectiveness. But, evidenced-based, rigorously evaluated virtues-based leadership development programs are rare. In this paper, we analyse The Virtues Project, a grassroots virtues-based character development program that has been around for decades, to see if and how it aligns to theory and evidence in leadership research. Access the article here.
We don't need more leaders - we need more good leaders. Advancing a virtues-based approach to leader(ship) development
In this article, we illustrate the numerous ways virtues and leadership intersect. How a virtues approach accounts for leadership effectiveness and ethics, how virtue and leadership are both learnable, the relationship between virtues, character, and leadership, the unity and universality of virtues, and how virtue serves as the linchpin between the individual and the collective good. Access the article here.
What is virtue? Advancing the conceptualization of virtue to inform positive organizational inquiry
Like many seemingly simple concepts – like love or leadership – virtue has many, often conflicting definitions. In this article, we integrate the current research on positive organizational scholarship, the ancient philosophy of virtue ethics, the ontology of critical realism to provide a comprehensive conceptualization and definition of what virtue is. We also provide a framework to help people assess what is virtuous within certain contexts.