IAS Visiting Scholar's Seminar - Leadership in Technicolor: exploring the richness of multi-domain leader identities

Abstract

Becoming a leader was once predominantly viewed as a professional milestone, with research in the field prescribing the ideal traits, behaviors, and requisite skills. However, contemporary perspectives emphasize that the emergence of and need for high-quality leadership extends well beyond traditional boundaries of work. In contrast to prescriptive theories of leadership, leader identity theory delves into a deeper phenomenon—how individuals come to view themselves as leaders. Leader identity, at its core, captures our self-perception as leaders and the personal significance we attach to leadership within and beyond formal professional roles. How we perceive ourselves as leaders profoundly influences our interpretation of situations and serves as a foundational element in relationships, fostering constructive and/or detrimental outcomes. This seminar summarizes qualitative and quantitative research on the cognitive, emotional, and social antecedents, processes, and outcomes involved in constructing and managing leader identities in diverse settings and life domains. Further, it will explore how leaders navigate and integrate identities across different domains (e.g. parent, athlete, woman) shape leadership and the challenges and opportunities that arise in doing so).

Places are limited and so any academic colleagues or students interested in attending in person should register. Registration form here.