Introduction to Civic Leadership, Part I Unit A
 The discipline of leadership studies – about 120 years old, just 15-20 years ago that universities began to study leadership as a discipline. o 4 areas of course/types of leadership courses:   Theory – what is it? LDRS 300 etc skills/behaviors – most common type, focus on teaching people how to do leadership  issues – focus on leadership as it relates to a particular issue, such as Leadership & ethics, or gender issues & leadership.  Context – study leadership within a particular context – Leadership & business, or politics (this course is a context course)  What is leadership? An influence relationship between leaders & followers. Multidirectional. 3 elements - This influence is based on persuasion, not authority. Why do followers hold the power? Because they have the decision making power. They decide who they’re going to follow, when, and why. To be successful in the leadership role, have to be persuasive and convince people to listen to me. Has to be a non-coercive relationship. 2) Why do we do leadership? To change from what is to what ought to be. 3) The change is for collective good and mutual purposes. Doing it for “our group”, the collective good of that group.  What is civic leadership? Taking what we know about leadership and moving it to a social/civic environment, a context course. Studying in the community environment, without the constraints of an organization. What’s different about Civic Leadership?

Point 3 from above is changed from what’s good for “our group” and instead what’s good for all of society. About producing community change. It’s about grassroots community groups empowering themselves and forcing change. Classic definition of it would be – Civic Leadership is the study of leadership in the context of community. It is leadership in the larger context, with no boundaries. It’s