In response to Rol's musing on leadership "trends." I think he is correct
about the common ideas which we share about leadership. Kouzes & Posner's
research is interesting not only in what they discovered, but how familiar
it seems to us. Somewhere in The Fifth Discipline, Senge says, something
like, structure produces behavior. And the structure of organizations
will either lead people to think that the boss is the leader and they are
the follower, or that all are leaders, leading within their own particular
context.
While serving as college chaplain and director of student leadership
programs at a small college in West Virginia, I did a doctorate in
leadership development from a theological seminary. What I sought in that
process was not only a theological perspective, but to answer the question
of whether leadership could be taught. What I discovered after reading
hundreds of books in management, psychology, sociology and theology, was
that leadership development cannot happen apart from the motivation and
initiative of the individual. I believe it is Conger in his book Learning
to Lead says that leaders are made or born, but are self-made. I would
add that they are self-made with a lot of help from friends, family and
mentors, and circumstances appropriate to their learning.
I cannot underestimate the requirement of personal initiative for the
development of leadership. In other terms, this may be referred to as
empowerment. Whatever it is it does produce a measure of conflict because
it does produce change. It strikes me that in some organizations, senior
leadership like the idea of empowerment, but don't fully understand its
implications for changing the organization. The question for them to ask
themselves, is not what management flavor of the month do we implement,
but what is appropriate for our organization, our people and our industry.
With initiative comes the need for honest, constructive self-criticism, in
order to learn as you go.
Ed Brenegar
--Edwin Brenegar III <brenegar@bulldog.unca.edu>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>