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Beyond a leader-centered approach: Practicing leadership capabilities for collaboration

Over 30 students from various degree programs across NYU Wagner deepened their capacity for impactful leadership through the Fall 2017 Collaborative Leadership Laboratory, Co-Lead Lab. The program emphasizes the value of moving beyond leader-centered models to engage with others in leadership work that leverages impact from collaboration.

Co-Lead Lab

Over 30 students from various degree programs across NYU Wagner deepened their capacity for impactful leadership through the Fall 2017 Collaborative Leadership Laboratory, Co-Lead Lab.

Leadership Partners

Leadership in Action at Wagner has engaged in partnership opportunities focused on areas such as program design and enhancement; workshops and learning sessions; technical assistance and training in innovative research techniques; fellowship design, implementation and evaluation; and the delivery of institutes and executive education programs.

Some of our past and current partners include:

Leadership History

The Leadership in Action virtual platform draws largely on work accomplished by the Research Center for Leadership in Action (RCLA) between 2003 and 2015. With funding from the Ford Foundation, the RCLA developed an approach to leadership exemplifying NYU Wagner's commitment to integrating theory and practice. RCLA designed leadership programs from the “ground up” in collaboration with leaders in the field that drew on cutting edge literature, practitioner wisdom, and peer-learning techniques.

Social Change Leadership

Social Change Organizations (SCOs) address systemic problems by helping to bring the voices of their constituents and communities to public debates and engage in collective action. Despite considerable constraints on their resources, SCOs succeed by finding ways to identify, grow, and use the talent and knowledge of their people. With intentional leadership work, SCOs can transform scarcity into abundance to leverage their organizational power and influence.

Social Change Leadership Practices

Leaders of social change organizations (SCOs) see abundant possibility in environments where people operate on the margins of power structures. Research from several Wagner leadership programs and initiatives shows SCOs to be driven by dissatisfaction with systemic inequity and guided by values like inclusion, solidarity, democracy and transparency. SCOs work with resourceful and purposeful action, propelled to enact their visions of a more just world.

A major contribution of Wagner's research to the leadership field has been illuminating three sets of leadership practices:

Evaluating Leadership in the Microfinance Industry

In 2009, the microfinance industry faced dramatic leadership challenges due to rapid growth, commercialization, and difficulties in recruiting and retaining women staff. In response, Women’s World Banking established the Center for Microfinance Leadership to develop a diverse set of principled, visionary leaders and high-performing organizations for the industry. 

About Leadership in Action at Wagner

No one individual, organization, or sector is capable of addressing the pressing issues of today’s shared-power world. Shifting geopolitical and digital landscapes require that we move beyond traditional "heroic" conceptions of leaders to instead recognize leadership that enables people to work across sectors and boundaries to find common solutions.

Evaluation of the Leadership Development For Mobilizing Reproductive Health Program

Each day, approximately 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. The Institute of International Education (IIE) West Coast Center implemented the Leadership Development for Mobilizing Reproductive Health Program (LDM). In support of organizations looking to empower community leaders to change policy and save women’s lives. The program developed and sustained over 1,200 leaders working on systemic improvements in family planning and reproductive health services in Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan and the Philippines.

Selected Projects

Our scholars and researchers are interested in equipping individuals with the knowledge and skills to enhance leadership practices in the organizations and fields in which they work. These selected research projects are a representation of our efforts in the research and evaluation of leadership. 

For more information on research projects, please visit NYU Wagner faculty pages.

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