A Scientific Perspective on Leadership Development - Ayse Yemiscigil

Everyone is an expert in leadership development, or at least has an option about it! 

For this reason, I decided to interview Professor Ayse Yemiscigil.

Ayse Yemiscigil, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business and a Research Affiliate with the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University. 

In February 2023, she, Dana Born, and Horace Ling, published an article for HBR.org of the Harvard Business Review titled: 'What Makes Leadership Development Programs Succeed?' 

In their article, they argue that global organizations spend, on an annual basis, more than $60 billion on leadership development programs, but that it is hard to establish the ROI of these programs.

During my conversation with Ayse we discussed the following topics:

1 Why most investments in Leadership Development programs fail

2 The format of Leadership Development programs

3 The content of Leadership Development programs

4 The ‘whole person’ approach

5 Whether knowledge building on business topics should be included in Leadership Development programs

6 The long-term impact (or not) of Leadership Development Programs

7 How to measure the impact of Leadership Development programs

8 Stimulating the self-reflection of (potential) leaders

About Ayse Yemiscigil:

Ayse Yemiscigil, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business and a Research Affiliate with the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University. She received her Ph.D. from Warwick Business School and has been a postdoctoral research fellow at The Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University and Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. 

Professor Yemiscigil’s research brings a humanistic lens to leadership development and management. Using an interdisciplinary approach, she studies how leaders cultivate humanistic ideals such as flourishing and well-being, meaning, purpose, and authenticity in themselves, organizations, and the broader society. 

Drawing from her interdisciplinary background in behavioral science, economics, and management, Professor Yemiscigil’s research focuses specifically on the social-economic barriers and support factors that are contextual and modifiable which may impact the humanistic development of leaders and organizational communities. She applies advanced quantitative methods to large-scale, longitudinal data and conducts natural field experiments in multi-country settings and organizations. 

Her research has been published in leading academic journals, including Psychological Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Harvard Business Review, and featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal among other media outlets. 

Professor Yemiscigil teaches humanistic management and leadership development and has been recognized for distinguished teaching performance by the Harvard Division of Continuing Education. She is a research consultant to multiple organizations including the Core Leadership Institute and Heart Mind Design. 

She holds a master’s degree in behavioral and economic sciences from Warwick University, UK, and a bachelor’s degree in economics and business administration from Koc University, Turkey.

The E-Mail address of Professor Yemiscigil is : [email protected]

The article ‘What Makes Leadership Development Programs Succeed?’ 
by Ayse Yemiscigil, Dana Born, and Horace Ling’ can be found here: https://hbr.org/2023/02/what-makes-leadership-development-programs-succeed