Developing the artist-leader

Abstract

Our leaders are challenged to lead in a world of increasing ambiguity and complexity, to make sense and to take effective action. The field of organization studies has developed a growing interest in ‘aesthetics’ in part as a response to such unprecedented conditions. From this perspective leaders require a new capacity comprised of aesthetic judgment, a perceptual stance and an ability to create plausible narratives of the world. The exercise of this aesthetic capacity is seen through the artistry shown by the Artist-Leader. The question of how to develop this capacity in leaders then becomes the primary challenge for designers. The current predominant approach to leader development is limited for this task, so the pedagogical approach outlined here draws predominantly on an aesthetically-informed hermeneutics. The concept of the aesthetic encounter, with its underlying conditions, is posited as the means for fostering the artist-leader’s innate imagination.

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