Downunderer Phil Rutherford responds to Fred Nichols:
While I have a great deal of respect for Fred's thoughts I would have to
disagree in this case and state that leadership can be taught - it is just
that the application of leadership in certain circumstances can't be.
I have been involved for many years now in leadership training with the Army
and Reserves (and many business organisations) where the teaching of
leadership and its assessment in the field are two separate exercises. What
we have done is actually articulated what others often see as good
leadership and from this come up with some criteria against which it can be
assessed - very similar to the way most of us use our own experiences and
preferences when measuring and assessing someone as a good (or otherwise)
leader.
The teaching part, however, covers a whole range of other areas such as
individual and group motivation, human behaviour, reward systems and status,
and so on - no different to most leadership training or education exercises.
The crunch comes, however, when these are applied by the individual, taking
and mixing it with his/her own personality and style. If what he/she does
suits the situation then we come up with some pretty accurate assessments of
the individual's ability to apply good (whatever that means under the
circumstances) leadership in the future. However, having said that, there is
no way we can replicate to a great extent, for example, the 'fog of war' or
business pressures that a leader at any level will also be under when being
called upon to do his/her thing. His/her ability to lead under those
circumstances will only come to the fore when and/if he/she is actually put
in that position. What we do is teach the theory, describe the functions
carried out by good leaders, and let the individual's natural abilities take
over. And quite often we will find there are good leaders who have forgotten
(or who were never even taught) the theory of leadership and just gone ahead
and done it - but it is what these people do that others are measured
against.
Phil Rutherford
robnphil@ozemail.com.au