Search results

If your community is looking for more committed and competent leaders, what type of educational intervention will get the best results? U-Lead, the University of Minnesota Extension’s community leadership program, engages with organizations and communities to strengthen leadership. As the educational provider of U-Lead, Extension has a responsibility to provide quality programs as well as honor time and resource constraints. The primary question of this study is: what impact, if any, does the program duration have on participant outcomes? Key Observations include (a) the longest duration programs consistently had the most improvements in skills and knowledge, (b) after completing programs, more people are committing to leadership positions. This does not appear to correlate to program duration, (c) using evaluation data for modifying programs and starting additional programs leads to more significant participant change, and (d) community leadership theory and measurement can lead to better programs with greater results.

In times of deep political and religious division and limited resources, the need for developing leadership that influences and heals our communities is particularly critical. Using service- learning, combined with community engaged scholarship, this pedagogical approach enhanced student transformation, involved and benefited the community growing together, and explored potential contributions to literature in servant leadership. The collaboration involved designing and planning a three-hour event and data collection to address combatting hate and creating greater compassion. Student, faculty, and community worked together in this independent project and reflections indicate significant efficacy of servant leadership in the interfaith community with actionable and accessible outcomes.

The authors examined the traditional leadership practiced by the Old Order Amish located in the Holmes and Wayne counties of America. Despite popular stereotypes, this community is remarkably innovative and resilient. Amish leadership aligns with the central tenets of humanistic leadership and provides a rich illustration of how such a leadership paradigm can foster a vibrant, inclusive and sustainable community. Unlike current leadership models that focus on instrumental values like wealth, profit and growth, Amish leadership is concerned with faith, community and living a simple life with purpose and dignity.

The primary data required for this paper were collected by the lead author during a six-month ethnographic study on several Amish communities located in Ohio. The authors also consulted a large set of archival data, including think tank reports, census data, biographies, magazine features and academic publications, which helped in placing the primary data in perspective and reminding of the particularities of the contexts from which the primary data were collected. For the data analysis, the authors used a thematic analysis approach to allow the salient themes of Amish humanistic leadership emerge from the data.

A total offour themes emerged from this study: (1) leadership as local identity and practice; (2) leaders without benefits, chosen by the lot; (3) leaders present matters, followers discuss and decide; (4) community welfare as the yardstick for evaluation. These themes highlighted some of the key aspects of humanistic leadership eclipsed in the mainstream theories of management and leadership. They showed how the Amish respond to the encroachment of technology, which holds critical clues for how humanistic leaders can place the needs of their people before the demands of their shareholders. By examining Amish leadership in detail, this study demonstrated the potential of humanistic leadership for creating a strong and sustainable community while also contributing to the empirical foundation of humanistic management.

Given the closed nature of the Amish, only few academic studies exist, which examined their leadership style. Furthermore, the traditional and conservative nature of the Amish community has prevented critics from investigating their leadership as a model for revitalizing other communities.

Many rural communities are experiencing a diversity of issues, but what part does leadership play in these communities? This qualitative study describes the environment within two communities in the southeast focusing on community variables of psychological sense of community, community leadership, and social capital. Leaders were identified and a qualitative data analysis identified several themes within these variables. Leaders strongly felt “sense of community” was in the surrounding county and a strong moral compass was provided by schools and churches. Leaders showed a sense of service to their community stressing the importance of involvement in the community. Local community groups provide the greatest opportunity for community action. Finally, they relied strongly on relationships as the backbone to the community. Effective community leaders are important in developing important relationships, establishing communication, and providing the community with direction. Further research should be done with an emphasis on change and development.

This exploratory case study adds to the growing literature on leaders and leadership development in communities experiencing poverty in the global south. It explores how leadership is conceptualized among community-identified leaders in Muñoz, Dominican Republic. Drawn from semistructured interviews, the eight participant narratives provide insight into potential approaches for developing local leadership capacity that may help combat generational poverty. The recommendations from this study highlight the need to support the development of human capital using an anticolonial framework. The recommendations are especially relevant for leadership groups preparing to work or currently working in the nonprofit sector. By knowing how to better support the development of localized leadership within communities of poverty, external nonprofit agencies— particularly those from the global north—can better support communities and mitigate the risk of perpetuating colonial dynamics and power structures.

This chapter explores distributed leadership in volunteer multistakeholder groups tackling complex problems, focusing on community organizing practices to bridge the gap between health and health care in Columbia, South Carolina. Columbia faces increasing chronic disease, high rates of uninsured, unequal access to healthcare services, and rising costs. Regional leaders periodically tackled these problems together but faced challenges common to multistakeholder groups. In 2010, leaders from Columbia partnered with the authors in a learning enterprise to find new, more sustainable ways to address these challenges. Together we adapted a community organizing approach to develop distributed leadership skills necessary to overcome the challenges of volunteer multistakeholder groups and transform the health system in a local area. In the first year, teams provided health screenings to over 1,000 residents; over 3,000 residents exercised leadership to improve community health; over 5,000 residents pledged to improve their health. Clinic hours were extended; new health coaches focused on primary care and wellness programs. Providers and payers committed to reinvesting a share of savings in the community, which has a voice in their use. We show that developing distributed leadership via community organizing offers an approach to solving seemingly intractable community problems.

Minnesota’s rural communities are becoming increasingly more racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse. The state shares territory with 11 Sovereign Nations and one in five Minnesotans identifies as Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) today, compared with just 1% in 1960. In collaboration with communities, University of Minnesota’s Extension Department of Community Development works to develop leadership capacity for residents to address inclusiveness, belonging, community climate and culture. The Welcoming and Inclusive Communities Program (WICP) focuses on measurement of community readiness within seven sectors combined with an educational stakeholder cohort experience leading to identification of challenges and best practices happening across a community. Curriculum includes exploring concepts of race and intersectionality and emphasizes the growth of leadership as participants work to promote equity and inclusion. Growing Local, another program in our community toolkit, is an intentional cohort series for BIPOC growth into leadership, more specifically, into decision-making arenas and positions of leadership, like their town/city/county committees, boards, and commissions. From learning the language of the oppressor (e.g., Robert’s Rules of Order) to understanding the dynamics and nuances of power-mapping and social capital, participants address the barriers facing BIPOC. This chapter highlights program design elements, assessments and evaluation, and lessons learned from program implementation to date. Scholars, researchers, practitioners, and leaders will find globally relevant and replicable tools to support the development of leaders who can shape their communities through the lens of inclusive leadership, increase and strengthen capacity to lead, build networks, and facilitate community-owned change.

Community leaders working in Black communities are faced with countless challenges yet require unique skills for which evidence-based training is often limited or difficult to find. The current study employed a mixed- methods approach using archival data to evaluate a promising and much needed neighborhood leadership program for Black community leaders, the Bunting Neighborhood Leadership Program. The three primary foci of the program were to examine who were selected as fellows, the goals fellows presented with upon entering the program, and the primary outcomes following immediate program completion and follow-up. Nineteen fellows have matriculated through the program, and all completed pre- and post-surveys, and were each contacted about current awards and other leadership successes. Additionally, seven fellows were interviewed about their experiences with and outcomes following the program. Surveys demonstrated important gains in knowledge and skill development for fellows. Following participation, many fellows developed their own organizations, and some secured funding and received awards for their community leadership work. Three key themes emerged from coded interviews, namely (1) characteristics of those who seek a community leadership training, (2) successes in community impact and activities observed among fellows following program completion, and (3) skills-based outcomes for fellows following program completion. The COVID-19 pandemic and killings of Black civilians by police also impacted participants’ responses. The role of blackness in Black community leadership was observed across themes that emerged. Overall, this is a promising community leadership program with important implications for leaders who serve Black communities.

Leadership development through a civic engagement activity in a local FFA chapter is explored. Through a case study design, researchers illuminate a project that encouraged youth leadership development through the creation and execution of a civic engagement project in their own local community. Holistically, FFA members viewed the project as a resounding success. Leadership development was experienced at many levels - individual, chapter, and community. FFA members felt particularly engaged when seen as partners with the community. This was accomplished through developing networks and participating in the planning, decision making, and execution of the project. The primary barrier cited was a lack of engagement from all chapter members. Implications include the important role civic engagement plays in youth leadership development, employing civic engagement projects to assist in developing higher level leadership skills, and the need for further research partnerships between career and technical student organizational members and local community citizens.