Prof. McCarthy leads first of two, first-ever sessions on leadership with MIT Fellows
On Friday, April 8th, HHHP Director (and Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior) Jack McCarthy gave his first of two sessions on leadership development at MIT for both BU and MIT Humphrey Fellows. This was the first time in the Program’s long history to conduct seminars on leadership with BU and MIT Humphrey Fellows together.
This first session was entitled Leading Today: The Leadership Challenge in Turbulent Times. It addressed the challenges of effective leadership in the context of changing times, turbulence, and great complexity. Personal leadership capabilities were discussed and explored as a platform for understanding the growth and development needs that each Fellow should pursue throughout their Fellowship year and beyond.
Attendees then undertook an exercise in which they first wrote down and then discussed their perceived leadership strengths and weaknesses. They then shared stories of situations in which their leadership was tested, followed by an exploration of the underlying values that they found expressed within those stories. When the audience regrouped, Jack highlighted that our struggle to lead in accordance with our values usually happens because our weaknesses get in the way. He concluded the session by emphasizing that, in a VUCA world, building the meta-competencies of self awareness and the willingness to change are more critical to leadership development than simply continuing to advance one’s professional expertise. 
