August 23, 2006
For Immediate Release
For an interview:
Center for the Study of Ethics
(801) 863-8455
For additional information:
www.uvsc.edu/ethics
College Marketing Contact:
Megan Laurie
(801) 863-7149
Written by:
Dixie Millet
(801) 863-8504
Ethics Center Discusses Leadership and Democracy
Utah Valley State College will host the monthly Ethics Forum September 6 at 7 p.m. in the faculty seminar room, Losee Center, room 243. The forum titled, “Smashing the Idol of Leadership: the Possibility and Desirability of Creating Leaderless Organizations,” will feature author and philosophy lecturer Jeffrey Nielsen as he discusses the idea that in a true democracy, everyone is a leader rather than leaders being special people with innate gifts.
Nielsen began a career in consulting and training with Franklin Covey. He currently trains and consults with organizations on design and strategy issues and assists them in developing peer-based decision-making and problem solving competencies. Nielsen’s book, “The Myth of Leadership: Creating Leaderless Organizations” presents an entirely different idea on leadership, one in which all voices are included and represented, arguing that this is truer to democracy and closer to what existed in ancient Greece than the democracy we have now.
“The idea is that everyone has their leadership skills and government should be more communal than hierarchical,” explained David R. Keller, director of the Center for the Study of Ethics. “Government should be egalitarian where leadership is based on equality— you and I can have a voice and governance is grounded at the community level.”
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