Leadership and Flourishing | Seminar

This seminar explores the VIA character strength of leadership as a foundational driver of direction, responsibility, and shared purpose within higher education contexts. Leadership is defined as the capacity to inspire and guide others toward common goals while empowering collective contribution and maintaining integrity under pressure. Grounded in positive psychology and character development science, the session examines leadership as both an interpersonal strength and a developmental process that supports academic engagement, collaboration, resilience, and long-term flourishing. Participants critically examine the optimal use of leadership—characterised by empowerment, accountability, and vision—as well as the risks of overuse, including dominance, burnout, or neglect of relational balance, and underuse, such as avoidance, self-doubt, or missed opportunities for growth. Through reflective exercises, applied examples, discussion, and WOOP-based implementation planning, the seminar equips participants to cultivate leadership that is ethical, sustainable, and aligned with shared purpose. Leadership is positioned not as positional authority, but as character-driven influence that enables individuals and communities to thrive. Learning Outcomes By the end of this seminar, participants will be able to: Define the VIA character strength of leadership and explain its relevance to flourishing within university and professional contexts. Distinguish between positional authority and character-based leadership grounded in empowerment and shared purpose. Identify the benefits of leadership for collaboration, accountability, resilience, and personal development. Recognize patterns of optimal use, underuse, and overuse of leadership in academic and group settings. Reflect on their own leadership tendencies, including strengths, blind spots, and growth areas. Apply practical strategies to cultivate ethical, empowering, and sustainable leadership behaviours. Develop a WOOP-based action plan to intentionally strengthen leadership capacity in their university community.