UBC Sauder faculty win MED Evidence-Based Leadership Development Award at 2023 Academy of Management Conference

Assistant Professor Michael Daniels, Assistant Professor Jon Evans, and Professor Daniel Skarlicki were recently honoured at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM 2023) in Boston, Massachusetts, with the MED Evidence-Based Leadership Development Award. 

The trio of UBC Sauder faculty were chosen for the award for their submission paper entitled “Leadership Development at UBC Sauder: Taking on the World’s Grand Challenges Through Adaptive Stewardship,” detailing the leadership development program at the UBC Sauder School of Business. 

Within the paper, they describe their approach as “a philosophy of leadership development that focuses on broadening perspectives and deepening competencies, starting with a focus on the self as a foundation, and expanding to focus on others, and ultimately on the larger community. Our approach is reflective, experiential, and integrative, utilizing a variety of science-based pedagogical tools

and methods.” Their philosophy is being weaved throughout the UBC Sauder undergrad, graduate, and executive education curriculum, and is spotlighted at the school’s Montalbano Centre for Responsible Leadership Development.

Their submission was chosen from nominations of leadership development programs at academic institutions around the world, either a singular course, a degree, and/or across the school or university as a whole. The judges were ideally seeking “a flagship program and exemplary of what the school has to offer in terms of leadership development.” Programs were assessed on three aspects: (1) vision on effective leadership and leadership development; (2) implementation of the vision within the program; and (3) the evidence supporting the effective implementation of the vision in the program.

"We are humbled to receive this award,” said Assistant Professor Daniels, on behalf of the group. “It reflects a commitment to evidence-based leadership education at UBC Sauder. Moreover, the process leading to the submission helped us identify the unique approach we take to leadership development as a school, as well as clarify a critical aspect of leadership education often overlooked in educational institutions: the importance of measuring the effects of education and training on leadership effectiveness."

Assistant Professor Jon Evans (back row left) with other presenters and organizers at AOM2023

All finalists for the award presented their work during a session at the conference. Other finalists included submissions from University of Queensland (Australia), University of Exeter (UK), University of Zurich (Switzerland), and the IÉSEG School of Management (France).