Short description: Sustaining and fostering well-being for leaders is becoming an increasingly important aspect of organizational and leadership studies as more attention is paid to the toll of stress in this work. However, a research emphasis on stress, anxiety, burnout and other associated conditions that can develop for many leaders is only one part of the wellbeing agenda—what about those leaders who, even within these tumultuous times in their work, experience a sense of thriving, of flourishing in their work? There are direct and indirect benefits of paying attention to leaders’ well-being, characterized by noticing and responding to challenges and issues within organizations from a positive, generative, and appreciative approach. Critical in this regard is a strength-based approach that illuminates the opportunities and potentials for leadership development and creates conditions for others in an organization to flourish as a collective. Positive leadership goes beyond the traditional administration and management foci of goal attainment and effectiveness, moving the leadership discourse and practice toward growing conditions for well-being and healthfulness, wholeness and vitality, thriving and flourishing. Grounded in research, this presentation will highlight the need for deliberate focus on positive leadership and its effect on the thriving and well-being of others in an organization. This session will review the four Ps model of flourishing leadership —purpose, passion, play, presence— domains of attention that are connected and linked with sets of activators that promote and encourage the qualities within these domains for positive leadership and flourishing in organizations

Bio: Dr. Benjamin Kutsyuruba is a Professor in Educational Leadership, Policy, and School Law in the Faculty of Education, Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario. His teaching and research areas include school law; educational policymaking; educational leadership; mentorship and teacher induction; trust, moral agency, and ethical decision-making; international education; school safety/climate; and, educational change. Throughout his career, Benjamin has worked as a teacher, researcher, manager, and professor in the field of education in Ukraine and Canada.