A leader teaching leadership
by Byron Kho
The Daily Pennsylvanian
September 27, 2001
Tuesday afternoon, Entrepreneurial Management Professor emeritus Edward Shils brought a timely figure to his course on executive leadership: Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham.
This marked the district attorney's second appearance in Shils' "Executive Leadership" course, Management 284. This time, Abraham underscored the need for competent leadership during times of turmoil.
"Leadership is the ability to command people, even though it can be directing people into the mouth of the fire," Abraham said, referring to the deaths of several emergency crews at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. "What does following [a leader] mean?... It will get ugly on occasion."
Abraham also stressed the social benefits of fighting crime -- another component of her job. "We give [women anti-drug activists] a plan, we also give them a project," she said, pointing to ending illegal drug abuse in communities.
For Shils and students in his class, Abraham was an inspiration and a role model. In class, Shils jokingly pledged his "full support" for her re-election campaign -- which culminates in November -- as the Democratic candidate.
Shils used Abraham to illustrate where a little ambition can take even the most disadvantaged students. Abraham grew up in a poor family as the only child to graduate from high school. Shils added that "if [my students] are affluent or not handicapped, why are they not excelling?"
Wharton junior Win Lippincott saw Shils' motivation. "He chooses close friends to speak that have had to overcome many obstacles to be where they are today."
Shils, a Penn Law School graduate, lets 65 students into his course each semester -- the maximum capacity for Steinberg Hall-Dietrich Hall 213.
Four or five more speakers will share their stories with the course.
"The speakers augment my long years of experience," Shils said.
Wharton senior Ena Marwaha said this class has been "more fun than any other class I've taken."
Other students took the course for more practical reasons. College and Wharton senior Virginie Bievre said "it was more real" than theoretical business courses.