Leadership, Teams, and Change, Oh My!

Dr. Seung Yu • Cahn Fellow 2021

Leadership that is effective and sustained is tremendously difficult to achieve, and it is desperately needed more than ever in our current social and professional environments. It requires leaders to consider many factors in their decision-making in hopes of achieving a common goal and optimizing the talent and skills in the people they lead. Leaders today must manage a multitude of considerations in making sound, just decisions while also exerting the presence, time, and effective communication needed to mobilize others in executing those decisions (Heifetz & Linksy, 2017). Dugan states, “leaders have a moral obligation to demonstrate concern for the development of followers and stakeholders to their full potential” (2017, p. 201). Simply, leadership demands leaders to be deeply introspective, empathetic, and resolute in their drive toward mobilizing others around a common vision. Each leader manifests effective leadership differently, but sustains it by constantly evolving as a learner to make the necessary changes to improve on behalf of those they serve.