Dr. Sean Lyons is Professor of Leadership and Management and Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies at the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics at the University of Guelph. Dr. Lyons’s main area of research concerns intergenerational differences and their impacts on workplace dynamics and managing people. He is co-author of the book Generational Career Shifts: How Matures, Boomers, Gen Xers and Millennials View Work and co-editor of Managing the New Workforce: International Perspectives on the Millennial Generation.

His research on generations has been featured in a number of media outlets, including Time Magazine, the Globe & Mail, the National Post, the Daily Mirror (UK), Macleans magazine, as well as on CBC’s The National, CTV News Channel, the Business News Network and CBC Radio’s The Current. Dr. Lyons works frequently with private and public sector organizations to identify and address inter-generational issues.

Highlights

* “Unlike heroic theories of leadership that focus on the leader as a heroic figure—who are somehow gifted with unique traits or skills—modern leadership focus on leadership as interpersonal processes that unfold within a group that focus on the leader as an symbol to help them find the right motivation and meaning in their own actions.”

* Leadership is a process of influencing others to achieve a common goal. (Northouse, 2022; 6)

* Virtuous Leadership is distinguishing right from wrong in one’s leadership role, taking steps to ensure justice and honesty, influencing and enabling others to pursue righteous and moral goals. …and helping others connect to a higher purpose. (Pearce et al., 2006; 62)

* Practical Wisdom (phronesis)—seeing the naked truth and knowing what is good, not good, and indifferent

* The Disciplines of Desire, Action, and Assent