Fellowship Knowledge Translation Webinar with Dr. Jaason Geerts

The title, “Calling out the Leadership B.S.”, plays off Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer’s book, which scathingly exposes many widely accepted but false leadership beliefs. The bulk of conventional leadership wisdom in best-selling books at the airport and even in academic journals, Pfeffer argues, is at best misleading, usually wrong, and frequently harmful.

This may explain why, despite the great impact that outstanding leaders and leadership can have on people, organizations, communities, and beyond, far too many leaders and leadership development programs underperform or fail.

Over the course of his academic career, Dr. Jaason Geerts, CCHL Fellowship candidate and Vice-President of Research and Leadership Development for the College, has taken a similar approach to investigating central leadership questions and debunking common beliefs and misconceptions.

The purpose of calling out the B.S., cultivating gold-standard evidence, and creating resources for research and practice has been to contribute credible scholarship to fill key knowledge gaps, and, most importantly, to support world-class leadership, care, and outcomes at home and abroad.

During this interactive webinar, Dr. Geerts will address several key leadership myths, such as:

• The myth about who should lead: veterans, volunteers, MBAs, etc.;
• The myth about “evidence” in the field;
• The myth about leadership development (which is nearly always just leader development);
• The myth about diverse teams; and
• The myth about leadership organizations (which are nearly always not).

For each topic, we will discuss:

• The key question or majority belief (myth),
• What the research actually says – calling out the B.S., and
• Key applications or takeaways.

Following the presentation, there will be time for audience questions.