First Thrive, Then Lead: An Emerging Approach to Engineering Leadership Education

Abstract

The study of human psychology has demonstrated that satisfying a set of basic psychological needs - autonomy, relatedness, and compentence - is essential  for personal well-being and thriving. However, student mental health data across North America indicates that students are experiencing high levels of stress, anxiety, and depression - an indication that they are not thriving. Our experiences of traditional approaches to leadership education, and engineering leadership education by extension, is that it tends to focus largely on the development of competence-based needs, such as specific individual leadership skills and attributes. The lack of focus on satisfying student psychological needs of autonomy and relatedness means that current approaches to engineering leadership education may not be fully supporting and preparing students to thrive, and therefore lead. Our paper explores the possibilities of incorporating all three basic psychological needs essential to thriving through an expansive, transformational approach to engineering leadership education: First Thrive, Then Lead. Our emerging integrative and holistic approach to the development of engineering leadership education draws inspiration from traditional and non-European wisdoms and practices, as well as our personal lived experiences, and is grounded in well-established scientific theories.