The leader-poet: ethical growth through reflexive poetic engagement

The pursuit of personal growth has been widely considered a desirable process in leadershipdevelopment. However, the capacity to improve ethical engagement remains enigmatic.Launching from Bendell and Little’s (2015) conceptualization of critical leadership studiesand Edwards, Elliot, Iszatt-White, and Schledlitzki’s (2015) call for creative techniques, thispaper assumes that rational, behavioural, knowledge and skills-based approaches toenhancing leadership capacity may fail to access deeper emotional experiences that can betterfacilitate profound inner transformation (van Buskirk, London, & Plump, 2015). We proposethat poetry and dialogue can be employed as tools for productive and reproductive reflection,as well as for research in developing ethical leadership capacity. Building on aninterdisciplinary approach of poetic inquiry (McCulliss, 2013) and reflexivity (Cunliffe,2009; Hibbert & Cunliffe, 2013) we present a phenomenological exploration of leadershipreflexive learning through the production and narration of poetry. This study aims tocontribute novel insight about ethical leadership learning that extends beyond traditional,rational approaches and taps into the emotional, spiritual, aesthetic and social process ofpersonal transformation.Keywords: poetry, leader development, ethical development, poetic