PUBLIC LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT
Effective leaders aren’t born; they’re made through work
Leadership is not about having a charismatic personality, Robert Wilkinson and Kimberlyn Leary contend, it’s about doing the work. “The tendency to believe in a heroic leader who can save the day is widely shared. However, such a mythical figure does not exist,” Wilkinson, a Harvard Kennedy School lecturer in public policy, and Leary, a Bloomberg Center affiliate, wrote in a working paper on the subject. In a recent conversation, Wilkinson and Leary talk about how anyone can learn effective leadership skills, and about the leadership framework they’ve taught in settings ranging from the Kennedy School’s Executive Education program to the White House. They teach that good leaders embrace “four Ps”: Perception (examining their own assumptions), Process (being intentional about how they manage their personal habits, routines, and self-reflection), People (striving to understand the people around them), and Projection (thinking about the story they tell themselves about their place in the world). | | | |
GLOBALIZATION
He predicted globalization’s failure, now he’s planning what’s next
For more than a quarter century, economist and Harvard Kennedy School professor Dani Rodrik has been ringing alarm bells about the dangers of globalization. And for a long time, it didn’t seem like many people were listening. But now, record economic inequality, a climate in crisis, and global financial shocks from the COVID pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have exposed the vulnerabilities and shortcomings of unchecked globalization and neoliberal orthodoxy about the primacy of markets. Though the temptation might be to look backward for vindication, Rodrik is choosing to look toward solutions. In the latest episode of HKS PolicyCast, he says finding a way forward will require two kinds of thinking—small picture: about how to create good jobs in an equitable way in specific settings; and big picture: imaging possible futures and what a more inclusive, post-globalism economy might look like.
Also recommended listening: The Carr Center for Human Rights Policy’s “Justice Matters” podcast featuring HKS Professor Dara Kay Cohen discussing gender and violence in the context of contemporary civil wars, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the quest for international justice. | | | |
80%
The percentage of workers ages 50–80 who say they’ve experienced one or more types of routine schedule instability, which can induce psychological distress, poor-quality sleep, work–family conflict, economic insecurity, and job dissatisfaction, according to The Shift Project. | | | | | |
PUBLIC LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT
Deval Patrick sees troubled U.S. democracy as a crisis in leadership
In his first public event since joining Harvard Kennedy School earlier this year, Center for Public Leadership Co-Director Deval Patrick focused on what he described as American leadership in crisis. Patrick, a professor of the practice of public leadership and former governor of Massachusetts, sees a sustained and comprehensive failure of leadership. “The loss of confidence in democracy as a path to change derives from our leaders' relentless focus on the next election or news cycle, or the next poll instead of the next generation,” he said. To address the challenge of voter apathy, he said, we need a different kind of leadership: “leaders who ask us, indeed who challenge us, to turn to each other instead of on each other.” Patrick made his remarks during a webinar in a free series hosted by the Kennedy School’s Executive Education program. | | | |
WHAT WE'RE READING
The State of the Nation’s Housing 2022: A report from the Joint Center on Housing Studies of Harvard University | | | | | |
POVERTY, INEQUALITY & OPPORTUNITY
Tackling social and economic problems comprehensively with smart policy design
One of Harvard Kennedy School’s Executive Education programs, “Leading Smart Policy Design,” provides practical frameworks for grappling with tough social and economic policy problems. “We talk about macroeconomics and trade. We talk about social protection. We talk about labor policy,” says Rema Hanna, the Jeffrey Cheah Professor of South-East Asia Studies, who is the executive education program’s faculty chair. “But these things are often very connected. So, for example, as you’re thinking about your social protection policy, it can’t be divorced from either your macro policy and how it affects the broader aggregate demand and the economy or your tax policy in terms of raising revenues to be able to redistribute.” The new, online executive education program was developed by experts at the School’s Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) research program and uses their signature teaching and research processes. Hanna, who is faculty director of EPoD, spoke for a recent article that also includes stories from Executive Education students around the globe who put their learning into practice. | | | |
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