The Cultivating Virtues in Leaders (CViL) project was recently featured in the Character and global leadership report published by the Oxford Character Project. CViL is offered to Kenyan school principals and their leadership teams with an aim to develop servant leadership virtues among them and skills necessary to lead school transformation.

The report was carried out by a multicultural group of researchers who examined academic literature and educational programmes focused on character-based leadership, with particular attention to five regions comprising 137 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

The regions included Southern and East Africa, Central and West Africa, Latin America, East and Southeast Asia, and South and Central Asia. The researchers investigated prevalent values, reviewed leadership literature, and analyzed leadership development programmes in each region.

The study was guided by the following questions:

1. What leadership character traits/virtues are relevant to LMICs?
2. What is the current scholarly understanding of character-based leadership in LMICs?
3. Who are developing character-based leaders in LMICs and how?
4. What are the gaps in character-based leadership research and programmes in LMICs?

The idea of character-based leadership is an expansive one, encompassing theories and models such as authentic leadership, ethical leadership, servant leadership, social justice leadership, spiritual leadership, values-based leadership, and virtuous leadership.

The report key findings indicated:

• The most highly valued leadership virtues across LMICs are empathy, honesty, courage, transparency, and care.
• The most prominent educational virtues emphasised in educational programmes are integrity, responsibility, service, compassion, empathy, inclusion, courage, wisdom, perseverance and purpose.
• Consistent increase in published papers on character-based leadership across LMICs.
• Over half (55%) of research papers focus on the corporate sector, with education second at 22%.
• Servant leadership is the most prominent model in academic research.
• The largest provider of character-based leadership programmes is the NGO sector, followed by universities.
• Common programme components and educational strategies include service-learning projects, role models, and learning communities.

You can read more about Character and Global Leadership Report here:

https://oxfordcharacter.org/research/character-global-leadership-report-2023

Character and Global Leadership 2023