Sage Leadership Project: Vision, Purposes and Methodology

Vision and Purposes

[For the complete report on this project see The Sages Among Us: Harnessing the Power of Civic Engagement, available as a link through the LPC Bookstore.]

The broad vision for the project has been to undertake an exploratory study of the role that unusually talented young and old sage leaders play in lending their experience, judgment, and wisdom to advance the civic welfare of Grass Valley and Nevada City, California.

Five specific project purposes were crafted from this over-riding vision:

• We sought to understand and describe the civic engagements of Senior Sage Leaders (the hidden and often ignored social capital) and Emerging Sage Leaders (the rising next generation), with “civic engagement” understood to mean both voluntary and paid involvement in nonprofit and community public service activities.

• We sought to identify and describe what motivates Senior Sage Leaders and Emerging Sage Leaders to provide exemplary civic leadership, and to learn what benefits they receive in return from their civic involvements.

• We sought to understand the views that Senior Sage Leaders and Emerging Sage leaders have about leadership, including changes in their own leadership over the years.

• We sought to understand the views that Senior Sage Leaders and Emerging Sage Leaders    have about their personal and professional growth, religion, spirituality, and the meaning of  wisdom.

• We sought to understand why some persons who possess sage leadership qualities are not civically involved, and what might be done to cultivate and expand the community’s pool of Emerging and Senior Sage Leaders.