Making Leadership Art: A Humanistic Regard on Leadership and Development

This essay aims to humanize leadership by representing it as art. It argues that treating leadership as art allows us to cultivate a humanistic regard—that is, a concern for the ways the study, teaching, and practice of leadership help people grow, move closer, and cultivate communities. A humanistic regard invites scholars, educators, and anyone who aspires to lead to move beyond idealism, individualism, and instrumentality, and to focus on the existential, social, and moral features of our productions and performances. Once we regard leadership as art, we can make better art. It becomes possible to ask whether and how leadership moves us and others: Is it impulsive or intentional? Is it imposing or inviting? In what way does it change our world for the better? In keeping with those questions, the essay contends that leadership development entails three movements: Clarifying and committing to a personal intent, inviting others to share that intent and help leaders bring it to life, and intervening in the current culture. Finally, the essay articulates how a humanistic regard for leadership as art integrates various streams of recent research, and opens a path toward more meaningful scholarship, more significant pedagogy, and more responsible practice.