Leadership & Character | Providence, RI

A group of Wake Foresters gathered over dinner in Providence, RI on May 10, 2019 to discuss Leadership & Character.

Overview and highlights of our Call to Conversation:

• We spoke about leadership in difficult times. A few recurring themes were:
  • Courage – Through our shared stories and our discussion about Wake Forest’s campus culture, we associated leadership with courage: the courage to question the status quo, the courage to speak out even when there is pressure to protect the group, the courage to look at ourselves and our past and admit when we have been wrong.
  • Kindness/Empathy – Kindness and empathy were themes that ran through many stories. Often we think of leadership as an act of individuality, but our stories were about leaders as people who were able to look outside themselves and see the world from another person’s point of view. Perhaps, it is in finding the balance between courage and empathy where leadership emerges.
  • Difference – We also touched on the fact that leadership does not always have to look the same. You can lead in different ways.