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Walking with Wordsworth is an interdisciplinary approach to leadership development that focuses on leadership as purpose. The romanticism of Wordsworth’s autobiographic poem, The Prelude, is a most applicable catalyst for examining a ‘leaders’ sense of purpose. Detail of the activity of walking in Wordsworth footsteps is outlined: a physical and metaphoric journey. Many managers have been struck by an engagement with the poetry set within the authentic context of the Lake District stimulating reflection on their own journeys and the sense of purpose and vocation. The chapter explores the opportunities of weaving literature, context and leadership development together.

This chapter will discuss the usefulness of working with Greek Mythology to enhance self-reflection within a classroom based executive education setting. Seeing myth as one of the most fundamental forms of narrative knowledge, connecting past, present and future of humanity, the chapter will highlight previous contributions on the use of mythology – and particularly the role of archetypes – in leadership development. Of specific interest here is how the use of the metaphorical language of archetypes enables participants in leadership development to see the complexity and often paradoxical nature of human characteristics and behaviour, enabling a safe space for deep self-reflection. This theoretical exploration is then enriched through an example of how the characteristics of Greek Gods and Goddesses have been used in a classroom based executive education setting to encourage critical self-reflection and engender deep conversations on notions such as leadership, followership, power and gender. Lessons from the use of these archetypes will be shared and particular attention paid to the ways in which they help to highlight the dualistic nature of personal strengths and weaknesses within working relationships and to challenge the binary nature of taken-for-granted assumptions about what makes good/bad or effective/weak leadership in changing organisational contexts. The chapter concludes with reflections on the efficacy of the technique and on how to deal with the possible range of emotional reactions of participants triggered by this process of critical self-reflection.

Leadership development scholars have been reflecting, on different approaches to leadership development programmes particularly those lecturers and facilitators interested in using aesthetic approaches and ideas. Recent aesthetic approaches have been captured in collections of work outlining different approaches to leadership development (Edwards, Elliott, Iszatt-White and Schedlitzki, 2013). Interest in the use of objects and artefacts has also grown. This chapter highlights the use of small finger puppets, representing a wide range of people both dead and alive, within leadership development and coaching. Discovered by chance the author outlines the use of finger puppets as an extension of the oft-used ‘visual aid’ for enhancing delegates’ understanding of the course content. This Chapter describes the ways in which these finger puppets have been used which has enable variety, interest and surprise to the wider concepts of experiential variety in the delivery of leadership ideas. The application of puppets is a significant move away from many over more conventional ways of engaging delegates and students and this novelty adds both humour and playfulness but also contributes to the processing, understanding and interpretation of conventional leadership theories and models.

This chapter outlines how the ‘tents’ exercise was shaped by research on how we learn to lead. Designed to enable the leadership experiences stemming from the course of their life, it seeks to surface unexplored, often unrecognised influences and tacit knowledge of leadership. Emerging out of the ‘Tents’ process is an organized narrative. The chapter explores how this understanding is utilized as part of a workshop focused on developing leadership practice.

As a socioanalytical method of experiential leadership development, the social photo matrix (SPM) uses both evocative and expressive work media (e.g. photographs, drawings, free associations, and amplifications) to explore daily leadership practice in depth. Photographs have many sociocultural functions beyond their evocative function that can foster reflection about deeper levels of our social systems. Moreover, by producing drawings and collectively viewing them together with the photographs, participants may become aware of their habitual (and often unconscious) leadership practices, and critically integrate new thinking to move towards expanded possibilities of leadership in practice. We show the basic assumptions of the SPM methodology, illustrate our work design, and provide a frame for a critically reflective application of the SPM in practice.