A changing world calls for leaders with the capacity for collaborative, socially responsible forms of leadership. The development of this capacity is connected to the growth of one's leadership identity. This chapter addresses how mentors, advisors, and coaches play a role in helping students formulate and grow in their leadership identity, and therefore their capacity for exercising leadership.
Leadership coaching is a method of learning and development. This brief describes a leadership practice that was effective in navigating culture when it became a relevant factor in maintaining a reciprocal leadership learning and development partnership. Using a community-based inquiry method, we utilized and examined leadership coaching practice as it attempted to support cross-cultural leadership learning and development that was running alongside an international development project in Kenya. Readers will gain a better understanding of a cross-cultural leadership coaching practice. Leaders Initiative (YALI), a U.S. Department of State program invest in the next generation of African leaders. Beth was selected for the Mandela Washington Fellowship-representing Kenya. Brandon was the Co-Academic Director of the YALI Civic Leadership Institute hosted by the Staley School of Leadership Studies at Kansas State University which provided academic coursework, leadership training, and networking for a cohort of Fellows Participation in the 6-week institute gave us a common experience and opportunity to develop a strong leadership coaching partnership, interrogate common civic leadership practices across culture and context, and for Brandon, to deepen his understanding of human rights regimes related to disability in Kenya. Our affiliation with YALI qualified us to apply for a U.S. Department of State/IREX Reciprocal Exchange Program Grant in 2017. The grant program was intended to support continued learning
The concept of leadership has a long history but gained vogue in Africa with the emergence of democracy and end of colonialism. Leadership, however, cannot be understood independent of context and so there have been questions of what African leadership is, African leadership in the diaspora, African leadership styles, and the future of Africa. The combination of past linkages, traditions, culture, history, and indigenous habits creates unique leadership styles that are distinctly African. Traditional leadership ontologies must acknowledge how leadership has evolved in ways distinct to the African experience. Collective and practiced ontologies of leadership must attend to the ways dialogic exchange, relationship, and socio‐material meaning take on a unique character when viewed through the lens of African culture and context. For Africans living outside of the continent (the diaspora), the expression and practice of leadership is embroiled with many issues. Studies on African leadership identify some features of African leadership culture and how those features play out on the identity, style, and development of African leaders exploring leadership as a vehicle for development in Africa. Using systematic review of the literature, the paper explores African leadership in the diaspora through dominant collective and practice leadership ontologies and cultural hybridity.
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