A daunting era of social and political change lies ahead  for the people of our land - and of other nations. Learning from the  citizens of the world, and working with them to understand and master these  forces through creative, principled, uplifting leadership - that is our  vision. -- James MacGregor Burns

Established in 1981, the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership pursues a bold mission: “to foster leadership excellence through scholarship and education, with special attention to advancing the leadership of groups historically underrepresented in public life.”

The vision that informs our work at the Academy is of a world where able leadership has resulted in peace, social justice, environmental sustainability, and shared prosperity—locally, nationally, and internationally.

Why the Academy is Needed, and How We Address These Needs

The problems facing the world today are complex and will not solve themselves. If we are to address current issues—such as hunger and poverty here and abroad; nuclear proliferation, international terrorism, and ethnic violence; and environmental devastation—we need leaders, at the macro and micro levels, who are up to the challenge not only of leading capably in stable times but also of inspiring and managing transformational change and responding to unanticipated new events. To create the conditions in which such leaders can emerge and flourish, scholarship, education, and development efforts within the field must be of the highest quality.

Accordingly, the Academy’s programs and services promote cutting-edge scholarship and research, inform and support policy makers, help students develop their leadership potential, equip career civil servants with the skills to carry out their work more effectively, and create connections among leaders and scholars around the world so that they may exchange knowledge and experiences. Because we believe that urgent societal needs cannot be met until everyone has a voice, we emphasize the realization of the leadership potential of historically underrepresented groups.

We recognize that old mindsets are inadequate to realizing the dream of a safer, more just and peaceful world—a dream that transcends partisanship and cultural differences. To foster enlightened leadership during these complex and challenging times, the Academy develops ideas, practices, tools, and models that enable individuals and groups to attain the wisdom necessary to realize the finest potential in people, organizations, situations, and the body politic.

The Academy is named after Pulitzer Prize winning scholar and author James MacGregor Burns. It pays tribute to his role in creating the field of leadership studies and describing a kind of leadership—transformational leadership—that is self-aware, respectful of others, and visionary.

While our approach to scholarship includes all methods that help us understand and develop able leadership, we are particularly interested in theories, models, tools, and experiences that encourage and develop such transformational abilities in individuals and groups and that help us understand leadership as a complex, interactive process.

Leadership: Towards a Working Definition

At the Academy, we often are asked to define leadership. This can be a difficult task, for leadership studies is an emerging field that has not established a clear consensual definition of its subject. Not long ago, leadership studies focused on presidents and generals, CEOs and executive directors, and assumed that leadership was a trait that some people have and others do not. More recently, leadership development professionals, scholars, and others have begun thinking about leadership in much broader terms. Increasingly, leadership is viewed as occurring at all levels of organizations and communities, and not as an innate “trait” but as a set of approaches and abilities that can be taught. Less emphasis is being placed on leaders per se, and more on the complex interaction between leaders, followers, and groups.

Quality leadership, as we define it, is a complex, interactive process that is inclusive and ethical, respects individuals, and produces quality results. In addition, we believe that: