17 students from the University of Navarra's School School of Economics and Business Administration participated in the pilot program 'Leadership as Service', which closed on March 27. It is promoted by the Centro Humanismo Cívico (Civic Humanism Center ) for programs of study on the character and ethics of the professions in the field of leadership. Institute for Culture and Society (ICS), in partnership with the Oxford Character Project, and has the support of the Fundación Ciudadanía y Valores (FUNCIVA). 

The program aims to "promote leadership models based on the positive growth of character and personal development ", according to manager, ICS researcher Emma Cohen de Lara. As she explained, the initiative aims to foster the acquisition of the virtues that enable and lead to forms of leadership manager: sense of mission statement and purpose, prudence, humility, resilience, gratitude and service. 

'Leadership as Service. Program of development of character and sense of purpose' works broadly within the neo-Aristotelian paradigm of the Education of character, which understands that good character possesses a series of virtues or excellences. 

From agreement with this paradigm, a good leader is able to serve others because, first, he or she develops the necessary virtues or character traits, such as prudence, humility, resilience and gratitude. And second, because he or she is attuned to relationships and is able to prioritize relationships over other more competitive goals, such as profit, victory and success.

project research

The program was developed during the months of February and March. It included sessions of reflective reading and dialogue on servant leadership and on the virtues of the program; practices and specific exercises for acquiring habits regarding each of the virtues, and the implementation of the university's Tu&Co mentoring program.

The opening session was given by Edward Brooks, position , director of the Oxford Character Project. The following sessions and activities of tutorial were attended by: on behalf of the School de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, its Dean, Ignacio Ferrero, and professor Álvaro Lleó; on behalf of the Centro Humanismo Cívico, its director, José María Torralba, researchers Vianney Domingo and Emma Cohen de Lara and PhD student Rodrigo Banda; Javier García Manglano, researcher principal of group 'Youth in transition' of the ICS; and Javier Gómez Martín, professor of Anthropology at TECNUN - Escuela de Ingenieros.

Regarding the experience, the organizers say thatthe students are "enthusiastic" and consider proposal to be complementary to their regular programs of study . The students indicate that they seek self-knowledge and value the personalized attention they receive. In this sense, next year, the Civic Humanism Center hopes to increase the duration of the program and open it to more students.

In parallel, the Center is developing a project led by Emma Cohen de Lara that seeks to investigate whether this program is effective and if it can be improved in any way, as well as to publish and/or disseminate the results in scientific meetings. The first work will be presented at the congress of the association European Character and Virtue Association (ECVA) in Madrid in June 2023.