The Foundation for Ontological Leadership Education (FOLE) is a charitable US organization committed to the training and development of faculty leading the course Being A Leader and The Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological / Phenomenological Model in their accredited universities and colleges throughout the world.

Ontology is the study or science of the nature and function of being or existence – and in this course, we are concerned with the nature and function of being for human beings.  Phenomenology is the method used in ontological inquiry.  Phenomenology concerns the nature and function of our perception of or awareness of (that is, our access to) the world, others, and ourselves.

From Harvard’s Handbook for Teaching Leadership, “How does one teach leadership in a way that not only informs them about leadership but also transforms them into actually being leaders?  …this eclectic group of scholars argues for adopting a decidedly ontological approach to leadership education that promises to leave students actually being leaders.”[1]

In this unique leadership course, faculty make the following bold promise to their students: “You will leave this course being a leader and exercising leadership effectively as your natural self-expression.”

[1] Snook, Scott, Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana, eds. The Handbook for Teaching Leadership: Knowing, Doing, and Being. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2012.