"Leading Generously" Kathleen Fitzpatrick

In a world increasingly defined by crisis, public service institutions like colleges, universities, and nonprofit organizations require capable, dynamic, and trustworthy leadership—yet stories of leadership failures there abound. The problem, Kathleen Fitzpatrick argues in Leading Generously, is a fundamental mismatch between the communal purposes that leaders must serve and the individualistic structures under which they operate. Transforming institutions so they can be resilient in the face of uncertain futures will require a similar transformation in leadership practices, turning hierarchies into collective and collaborative spaces designed for the common good. Doing so, however, requires a willingness to reimagine the idea of leadership itself. Kathleen Fitzpatrick explores not just the problems with the institutional status quo but also the tools to transform it. Her wide-ranging research brings together key theories of leadership with the experiences of successful leaders whose stories demonstrate innovative possibilities for collaboration in the service of institutional transformation. Kathleen Fitzpatrick is Interim Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies and Professor of English at Michigan State University. Prior to assuming this role, she was Director of DH@MSU and founding director of Mesh Research, a lab focused on the future of digital scholarly communication. Her work across her career has focused on building resilient, sustainable scholarly communities and transforming their processes of communication to foreground connection, conversation, and collaboration.