Although
the executive education debate still rages on
whetherleadershipis
learned or innate,
there
is no doubt that the subject is being
taught.
In
October 2003, BusinessWeek reported that 134
companies from 20 nations spent $210 million to enroll
21,000 employees in executive leadership programs.
Since leadership
development is
not an event, that's a significant investment in
classroom activities that may or may not produce
company leaders or even better
managers.
A survey of 3,000
leaders and associates in 117 organizations reports
that 63% plan to increase spending on leadership
development programs that 75% of HR executives
surveyed don't give a high quality rating
to.
The paradox of
spending more on what's not working is due to
leadership development being seen as a classroom
event. Yet, you don't fix people by sending them off
to training. Managers need ongoing coaching to get in
the habit of being good leaders.
The survey reported
that two-thirds of the respondents said leaders at
their company exhibited at least one potentially fatal
flaw or "derailer"--a personality attribute that
interferes with leadership effectiveness. Derailers
are more personality-oriented than skill-based and are
more difficult to change than teaching someone a new
skill.
For all the money
spent on them, we still don't know if leadership
programs work.
Bottom
Line:
Leadership development is self-development. Learning
how to not micromanage, not be overly concrete, not
fail to explicitly state expectations and other
unproductive inter-personal behavior only happens
through the increased self-awareness gained in a
personal coaching or mentoring
relationship.
“The crux of
leadership development that works is self-directed
learning:
intentionally developing or strengthening an aspect of
who you are or who you want to be, or
both.”
Primal
Leadership by Daniel
Goleman, Richard Boyatzis & Annie McKee (Harvard
Business School Press)
Sources:Leadership Paradox by Warren Bennis in October 1,
2004, CIO/Insight and Assessment of the state of
corporate leadership by Bridgeville, PA-based
Development Dimensions International
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Leadership is not
just for people at the top. Everyone can learn to lead
by discovering the power that lies within each one of
us to make a difference and being prepared when the
call to lead comes.
Leadership is
applicable to all facets of life: a competency that
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In
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You, too, can
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The common thread
throughout history has been that you learn mastery
performance from the master. Whatever quality or skill
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people who have it.
Albert Einstein
once said, "We should take care not to make the
intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles
but no personality. It cannot lead; it can only
serve."
Leaders know and
science has discovered emotionality's deeper purpose:
the timeworn mechanisms of emotion allow two human
beings to receive the contents of each other's minds.
Emotion is the messenger of love; it is the vehicle
that carries every signal from one brimming heart to
another.
That is why
leadership development is not an event. It is a
process of participating in respectful conversations
where the leader recognizes his or her own feelings
and those of others in building safe and trusting
relationships.
For human beings,
feeling deeply is synonymous with being
alive.
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