Business schools have long been criticised for cultivating individualism and competitive isolation under the guise of leadership development. Lonely at the Top challenges this paradigm by exposing the emotional toll of leadership and drawing a compelling parallel with the student experience. It argues that leadership education must move beyond technical competence to embrace emotional intelligence, community-building, and wellbeing. Highlighting insights from the EFMD Student Experience Workshop, the article calls for a reorientation of business education—one that prioritises connection over competition, and resilience over rugged individualism. The challenge is clear: to educate leaders who are not only capable but also connected.

When leaders feel emotionally and socially connected, they are better equipped to make informed decisions, inspire their teams, and drive organisational success (see Lam et al., 2024). Effective leadership is not just about strategic decision-making but also about being attuned to the emotional and social dynamics of the workplace and knowing how to work with and get the best from others.  With wellbeing continuing to be high on the agenda of many organisations, it is worth considering how we are preparing our students for leadership as a role that needs to champion wellbeing and engagement, but in itself can be a lonely place to be.

Minimising student isolation was a key theme at the third face-to-face iteration of EFMD’s Student Experience Workshop in Brussels, this year titled ‘Making sense of student wellbeing and engagement’.  The beginning of April saw fourteen countries represented and a full two-day programme; participants were able to explore what others were doing in the space, think about how to adapt these ideas in their own institutions, and co-create new potential plans around student experience. The group focused on how we might craft supportive environments to ensure students feel seen and heard and foster connections through community-building activities to address loneliness.

During conversations at the workshop, we often cited parallels between the lived experience of a student at university and that of a leader within an organisation. In the same vein, we talked about how management education at university should act as a nursery to equip students with the skills, behaviours and confidence to lead if they so wish – and therefore, that parallel was important, especially when it came to speaking of loneliness.

Being a leader can indeed be a solitary journey. A leader must navigate the many voices within their team or organisation and leverage expertise to make decisions that are impactful and inspire confidence. Their performance is often under constant scrutiny and judgement (either by those above and/or below them, but also possibly from themselves). And finally, striking the perfect balance between having a broad understanding of everything but also being able to engage with detail where necessary is crucial for effective leadership.  Just like being a student.

The pressure and responsibilities of a unique role like that of leader require hard work, grit and determination.  However, the lone attitude of “get your head down and get it done” (often adopted by those early in their university education journey) will only serve purposes to a certain level.  For our high-performing students, this is often a go-to approach, and one that feeds isolation.  Almost always, we need to rely on the specialist skills of others and see problems from different angles to consider how to best tackle them. Students, like leaders, need to learn to navigate complex environments and pick out the elements that work for them. Helping them to help themselves involves enabling students to build a customised community around them, similar to building a high-performing team. Support should be seen as a 360° concept, not a linear journey from problem to solution.  The value for students lies in the lessons learned along the way, which are rarely reflected in their grades or exam scores.

A study featured in Current Psychology examined the link between loneliness and students ‘Sense of Coherence’ (S-SoC).  S-SoC measures how well a person can handle stress and use their support network. This is made up of three elements: understanding what’s happening around you, feeling capable of managing challenges, and finding purpose in what you are doing.  The findings showed that students experiencing moderate to severe loneliness had lower S-SoC scores, suggesting that loneliness adversely affects their capacity to handle stress and utilise social support resources effectively (Limarutti, Maier and Mir, 2023).

The importance of combatting loneliness and creating a sense of community where students feel heard, valued, and part of something larger was highlighted repeatedly at our workshop. Community was explored in the context of building a positive environment and supporting prosocial responses like sharing, cooperation, and empathy.  Solid examples of initiatives were given in both reflective academic exercises and group coaching examples. Gratitude practice emerged as an effective way to encourage students to access positive emotions, ground them in the moment, and promote the value of a holistic approach to their learning experience.

Many institutions are employing communal meals as a quick win in creating spaces for sharing.  Such events have been a part of our human fabric since time immemorial. Participants reported that food events brought students together and where there was a ‘potluck’ element, students were able to share something about their cultural background or stories from their past alongside this.  Like most of the population, fun and food speak to us.

Encouraging the development of communities and bonding among students is crucial because it fosters reciprocal relationships, resembling the mutual give and take found in healthy professional working environments. Creating a culture that values and supports emotional and social wellbeing is essential for universities, and it is important to remember that this can set a blueprint for how our graduates approach their working lives and the values that they may bring to a future role in leadership.  For both student and leader, a supportive culture can mitigate the effects of loneliness and build resilience.

Reducing isolation for students involves opening opportunities for connection and giving existing support structures in universities exposure, breaking down barriers to entry. Sustainable leaders (and their teams) will recognise the role of wellness and community in creating an environment where people thrive and feel part of something bigger.  Just as social isolation can diminish a leader’s ability to engage effectively with their team and stakeholders, for a student it can be the difference between getting their degree and not. Building social connectedness is complex and (ideally) should be student-led, although it is up to the institution to create an environment that catalyses these connections.

The EFMD Student Experience Workshop underscored the vital role of emotional and social connectedness for students, and related this to the leaders that our institutions are developing. In driving strategies for creating communities and reducing loneliness educators can help students build resilience and learn to navigate complex environments. This not only enhances the student experience but also equips graduates to lead with empathy and effectiveness.

For more information on future workshops, or if you’d like to contribute, please contact Virginie Heredia-Rosa at [email protected].

References

Lam, H., S.R. Giessner, M. Shemla and M.D. Werner (2024). Leader and leadership loneliness: A review-based
critique and path to future research. Leadership Quarterly, 35(3), Article 101780

Limarutti, A., M.J. Maier and E. Mir (2023). Exploring loneliness and students’ sense of coherence (S-SoC) in the university setting. Current Psychology, 42, pp.9270–9281