This summer we have all been living and learning through an unprecedented crisis: literally the greatest disruption to daily life in the United States since at least World War II, a rapid economic collapse that is approaching and may exceed the scale of the Great Depression, deeply inequitable impacts from the crisis mapped into pre-existing inequalities of race and class, and a death count estimated at more than 130,000 and rising.
This pandemic is providing clear warning that our nation, and perhaps humanity as a whole, is on an unsustainable course. Without dramatic change we are all but certain to face future previously unimaginable crises, and dramatic change will require leadership.
As a professor in the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond, the first undergraduate school of its kind, I’m often faced with answering the question, “What is leadership studies?” or “why are you in leadership studies?”
In the past I have offered this snap answer: “Because it’s a matter of life and death.” The current crisis tragically and vividly illustrates this.
Effective and ethical leadership tends to promote human flourishing, while inept or unethical leadership can lead to death, carnage, even social collapse. I would be negligent as an educator if I tried to paper the current crisis over or provide false reassurance.
Many people will die unnecessarily before the crisis subsides. Decisions made or not made by leaders will impact its ultimate magnitude. On the other side of this collective trauma, we will be faced with the task of not just “healing,” but also repairing our broken institutions.
We can accelerate that work by using this time to discern what this crisis is teaching us, or reminding us of.
