Leadership as Performance: Developing Leadership Skills Through Acting

Leadership as Performance: Developing Leadership Skills through Acting is based on the premise that leadership is a performance, a role played by leaders to inspire followers to achieve a shared goal. The book explores how acting techniques can facilitate the development of leadership skills. For this purpose, it introduces the SPACE model of leadership development, which is based on five key leadership skills: self-awareness, presence, authenticity, communication, and emotional intelligence.

The book is divided into three parts. The first part explores the metaphor of leadership as a performance and the fundamentals of both leadership and acting. The second part elaborates on the SPACE model by showing how each of the five key leadership skills can be developed with acting techniques. The final part explores how improvisation can help leaders adapt to change, work with teams, and foster creativity and innovation. It also discusses the role of visionary leadership in inspiring others and creating a shared purpose. Readers are provided with tools to build on their skills through a range of pedagogy, including a set of self-reflective questions in each chapter, acting-based exercises and improvisations in the most practical chapters, and discussions of cases of well-known leaders.

This book is ideal for leaders, practitioners, and students interested in exploring how to develop leadership skills through acting. It is an excellent read for undergraduate and graduate leadership courses as well as executive education programs.

Marco Aponte-Moreno is a Professor of Clinical Management and Organization at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. He is also a trained actor with over 25 years of acting experience.