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The psychology of leadership is changing. Today's organizations want Leader The of a leaders who coach rather than control, who give counsel, not commands. To teach these skills to students, educators are delving into the minds of effective leaders to discover just what makes them tick. by Tricia Bisoux illustration by Stuart Bradford Traditional concepts of leadership are deeply ingrained in the human psyche: a new age, one equipped to work in groups, make decisions collaboratively, and delegate power to others. As corpora- tions require more leaders and fewer followers to add to their ranks, many business schools are reinventing their programs to educate a new generation of leaders who must, in essence, defy tradition. "In the past, business believed that a leader was like the Children grow up playing "follow the leader," mimicking every action and gesture of the child at the front of the line. In movies, the platoon leader never leaves behind a soldier, and the captain always goes down with his ship. In essence, leaders direct, command, and control, receiving the glory and accepting the blame. At least, that's the way it used to be. Enter the leader for themselves quickly overwhelmed in the modern business environment. As a result, corporations have made it clear that the traditional mainstays of leadership—individualism, unilat- eral decision-making, and edicts from the mountaintop—sim- ply won't cut it anymore. Instead, it's the cheerleaders rather than the ringleaders whom corporations seek. It's up to busi- ness schools to fill that order. captain of a ship: cool, calm, collected," says Barry Posner, dean of Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business in California, and professor in its Institute of Spirituality and Leadership. "Now, we see that leaders need to be human. They need to be in touch, they need to be empathetic, and they need to be with people. Leaders need to be a part of what's going on, not apart from what's going on." Indeed, the diehard mavericks of yesteryear would find 26 BizEd SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2002 The Discipline to Lead Many believe it's time to make leadership a discipline in itself, because its purview has expanded considerably. Leadership skills are a necessity for the kindergarten teacher, the Peace Corps volunteer, the family member. It's not just for CEOs and high-ranking government officials anymore. Already students from institutions that offer degree pro- grams in leadership are in demand. For example, programs such as the decade-old Jepson School for Leadership Studies, an undergraduate liberal arts program at the University of Richmond in Virginia, and the one-year-old MBA/Master of Arts in Leadership at the Thierry Graduate School of Leadership in Brussels, Belgium, have come into their own. Leadership degree programs are the "actual expression of