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I suggest that a major goal of any Leadership Program, whether at the
University, in Extension Courses or within a corporation's training
department would be to develop a person who exhibits dependability.
The Educator or Trainer or Boss can select a project that challenges the
student to practice leadership, demonstrating all of the elements of
DEPENDABLE, a mnemonic for many of the positive traits associated with
successful leaders:
D: Direct
E: Enlisting
P: Proactive
E: Enthusiastic
N: Negotiating
D: Delegating
A: Accepting
B: Bold
L: Listening
E: Enabling
And add ample positive feedback to the student from their mentor
(supervisor or professor) that creates success in each element and
presumably a successful project outcome. The student becomes effective,
with an understanding of the merit of high standards and ethical behavior.
One more thing: How does one add to Dependability?
Add a sense of humor.

Respectfully submitted... ;-)

Corey G. Cate
Training Project Manager
Chemistry and Materials Science Directorate
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
P.O. Box 808 L-353
Livermore, CA 94550
email: cate1@llnl.gov

Visit the C&MS Web pages at: http://cms.llnl.gov

In a meta-study of over 200 studies on leadership, Dr. Thomas J.
Landers, former Dean of the business school at Gallaudet Univ. in
Washington DC discovered the following:

The 200 studies showed that leaders who had many skills and
were flexible in their use of those skills we the most
effective leaders.

So there is no one skill that makes for leadership - but many.

The place to start then is with the individual and assess what
skills they currently have, how well they use them and then begin
to add skills they are most interested in learning.

So according to Dr. Landers' study a good leader is someone
who at times can be hands off, at times engage in consensus,
at times ask for input but make the decision him/herself, and
at times just make the decision with no input at all.

Flexibility and a large tool kit make for good leaders.

George Takacs
Takacs Techniques
Largo, MD