Profound Leadership and Adult Education: An Empirical Study

The intentional teaching application of leadership theories is not often addressed in leadership development programs comprising the field of adult education. The purpose of this study is to understand more deeply the quality, characteristics, and practices of profound leaders. This is an exploratory, empirical study, interviewing seven participants chosen for leadership acumen and vetted by the research team: employing a two-interview sequence, research apprenticeship model, and thematic analysis. Initial findings include commonly elicited elements, viewed through the lens of integrative literature review findings. Understanding and applying the profound leadership concept offers the field of adult education useful implications with information about leadership development, teaching leadership in higher education and organizations, and practicing leadership allowing flourishing in individuals, organizations, and society. [For the complete volume, "American Association for Adult and Continuing Education Inaugural 2020 Conference Proceedings (Online, October 27-30, 2020)," see ED611534.]