Contextualizing Empathetic Leadership: Innovation and Redefinition in Lebanese Higher Education

This chapter examines how Lebanese women leaders in higher education conceptualize and evaluate leadership success within a complex sociopolitical and institutional context. Situated within the Global South, the study responds to the need for more contextually grounded understandings of leadership that move beyond universal and performance-driven models. Drawing on interpretative phenomenological analysis, the chapter explores leadership success as a multidimensional and evolving construct shaped by lived experience. Findings reveal three interrelated dimensions of success: relational success, defined through collective impact and the empowerment of others; transformational legacy, reflected in the ability to shape institutional structures and generate lasting change; and the evolving self, characterized by continuous growth, reflexivity, and resilience. Together, these dimensions redefine leadership success as a dynamic process that integrates relational, structural, and developmental elements. By integrating appreciative inquiry (AI), emotional intelligence (EI), and social constructivism (SC), the chapter offers a contextually grounded framework for understanding leadership success as both adaptive and innovative. It contributes to educational leadership scholarship by foregrounding perspectives from Lebanese higher education and by reframing innovation as a leadership-driven process embedded in context, relationships, and transformation.