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AS FORMER MAYOR OF CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, and transportation secretary in the Obama administration, Anthony Foxx has spent a lot of time thinking about the importance of leadership in a time of political divisions. Now co-director of Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership, Foxx, the Emma Bloomberg Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership, will focus on helping a new generation prepare for leadership in a turbulent time. We spoke with Foxx about his new appointment, his Culture and Politics Lab, and how to create “win-win” scenarios.

Q: How do you see your role at the Center for Public Leadership?

I’ll be a leader among leaders. I bring a tremendous passion for service, experience in a variety of public roles, and a strong desire to help other people succeed. What we do at CPL can have an outsized impact on the world, and I believe it is not only a matter of what I can do, but what we can all do, individually and collectively, at CPL. I am thrilled to lead CPL with Hannah Riley Bowles, the Roy E. Larsen Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management. I cannot think of anything more important than working with the outstanding team at CPL to groom a new generation of leaders. Democracy is in crisis, and leadership matters more now than perhaps at any other time. We have a privilege and unique responsibility at the Kennedy School and especially at CPL to cultivate young people hungry to take up the mantle of leadership.

Q: What is leadership to you?

Leadership is taking responsibility for making the world a better place. But there is no one type of leader. Leaders can be unassuming or boisterous. They can be funny or serious. What I have found to be most true is the best leaders have a degree of comfort with themselves. They’re not trying to be someone else, and believe it or not, that’s one of the hardest things to achieve. If we can help students build knowledge and skill around their own strengths, they will be so much more prepared and ahead of the curve than if we try to reinvent them. I also believe leadership is a continuous journey. I look forward to sharing what I have learned. But I also look forward to learning from some of the best minds on leadership within the Kennedy School and, frankly, from our amazing students and staff team.

Q: You introduced a new program with CPL. What is the Culture and Politics Lab?

When I left active politics, I asked myself tough questions about what responsibility I might have to help us bridge the many divisions that have been exposed in America. The best answer I have, and it is still a working hypothesis, is that we cannot effectively address political divisions without engaging the overall culture. To paraphrase President John F.  Kennedy, culture “is the great democrat calling forth creative genius from every sector of society, disregarding race or religion or wealth or color.” As much as it sometimes feels otherwise, our divisions are not greater than what binds us. I don’t mean to sound Pollyannaish, but even our deepest disagreements need to be addressed within an overall context of common identity. Our music, film and television, sports, food, visual art, and other aspects of culture all tell this story. The integration we accept in these forms is often rejected in our politics, and it calls me to ask, “Why?” Our culture tells us to be unafraid of our differences and shows us how extremely practiced we already are at integrating the influences we all bring to the table into new forms that should bring us hope. So, the Culture and Politics Lab will be all about researching, teaching, programming, and otherwise building on the strengths of culture as a point of connection and renewal, including mapping ongoing initiatives across the University. There is also a global dimension, and we have many faculty and students across the University who have a deep interest in extending this focus to the broader world.

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Banner photo by Bethany Versoy.