Posted December 7, 2022 | Published Article Here by Idaho Statesman
As some of you know, I teach in Boise State’s executive MBA program (which, in the interest of shameless promotion, has been ranked No. 15 in the country by Fortune magazine! Ahead of Cornell, Columbia and many others you’ve heard of! We’re thrilled. But back to my point). I love teaching these intelligent, motivated and questioning participants. The group includes people from health care, nonprofits, agriculture, manufacturing, green energy and more. Needless to say, they keep the instructors on our toes.
Early this semester, I assigned a reading on leadership — it was a collection of lectures done by a Stanford professor over 15 years. He used literature to illustrate leadership principles. (It reminded me of a course I taught more than 20 years ago with the late English professor Carol Martin. We called the course “Iacocca and Shakespeare in the Boardroom,” so you know how long ago that was. We too used literature — e.g., King Lear, Billy Budd — to talk about the challenges of leadership).
I felt a little uncomfortable assigning that reading, but these participants are highly capable of tough readings so I went ahead anyway. I did have a concern about some of the dated language. But again, I thought the message was more important than the language, so I plowed ahead.
Was I wrong. I always ask at the beginning of class what people’s takeaways from the readings were. I got an earful from some very outspoken women…
Learn more about what happened by reading the full article.
About the Author
Nancy K. Napier, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Professor Emerita at Boise State University, Executive MBA professor of strategy and leadership.