Leadership Foundations in Research

I remember a time when “leaders” came straight from a mold. In my 8-year-old mind, they were essentially different variations on the Monopoly man, Rich Uncle Pennybags, or J. Jonah Jameson, the always-screaming newspaper editor from the Spider-Man comic books. These figures were “bosses,” and my image of them usually came from pop culture. They were the stiff, boring ones in suits who were always trying to foil the fun of the child protagonist. They were mean, and uber-rich, the ones in corner offices who slammed their fists on desks when they wanted something and wanted it now . They were characters, these people — simplistic and childish and in positions that seemed wholly unattainable. They were the ones who told other people what to do, which made them intimidating. It made them jerks. As I got older, this mindset thankfully changed — although I sometimes think (usually while scrolling through social media), that for some people, it never truly did. Leaders — when they co...