Scharmer’s Theory U and Administrative Leadership: Seeking Leaders and Developing Candidates
Greg K. Gibbs

Abstract
As we chose candidates at the university for educational leadership programs, we attempt to identify traits that would suggest these people have the ability to lead and become effective administrators. Through the years we have developed many interview protocols but there is still no one common boilerplate that serves as “the” model for interviewing leadership candidates. We constantly look to refine that process to increase the odds of the correct candidates. This paper examines “Theory U”, developed by Otto Sharmer, from the Society of Organizational Learning in Massachusetts, as having potential for providing an enlightened view and offering new insights to the and developing of leadership candidates. Although Sharmer did not specifically develop this theory for this use there may be some positive elements that need to be explored further. This paper begins that dialogue.

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