Dr. Antar Salim, D.B.A., a core faculty member of Saint Mary’s Doctorate of Business Administration program, led a learning circle that aims to explore the intersection of character and leadership with staff, faculty, and students.The session provided participants with a deeper understanding of their character strengths and strategies to leverage those strengths to enhance their leadership capabilities. Salim received a faculty fellowship through the Kern Family Foundation to enroll in the Master of Arts in Character Education program at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. He is the first at Saint Mary’s to complete the program.
“The learning session had two overarching goals,” says Salim. “First, the aim was to ground participants in the language of character strengths and virtues. In doing so, the group was able to interact from a shared pool of knowledge. The second objective focused on how learners can be more intentional and adroit at leveraging character strengths to enhance their leadership capabilities.”
Paul Kotz, Director of the Doctorate of Business Administration program, says, “Dr. Salim created a welcome space for teaching, dialogue and learning more about ourselves. He gave us ways to intertwine character, virtue and our core strengths to become better teachers, administrators, staff and people on this Earth.”
“I appreciated looking at how we might ascribe value or de-value to a virtue depending on our situation,” says Michelle Dougherty, Associate Director of University Enrollment. “It was also useful to consider what traits we bring to our leadership skills, which muscles we overly rely on and which need to be strengthened.”