When I first began to take an interest in leadership, some twenty years ago now, I was overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge and insight such writers as John Adair, Meredith Belbin, Kenneth Blanchard, Douglas McGregor, Warren Bennis, Charles Handy along with many others, expressed in their writings. Things that, if I had known as a managing director some ten years previously would no doubt have been of much value to me and my business.
Yet, as time passed and I continued my research into leadership, and while conducted numerous workshops for headteachers and others, a vexed question kept returning to haunt me. ‘Why is this knowledge, these insights that are being advocated by the growing number of leadership centres, schools of leadership, business and organizational consultancies etc., not having the expected positive results in areas of education, social and organizational environments?
As my research continues I am, and indeed have been for some time now, increasingly concerned that the general understanding and approach to leadership in today’s world is indeed defective. This deficiency is, I believe, the result of the all too unquestioned assumption that leadership and leaders are automatically related. They are not. And since they are not, all the emphasis and talk of leadership that we find in the management, political, historical and media domains simply diminishes the possibility of achieving the overall benefits that the understanding and exercise of leadership could offer by way of building a better world not only for present generations, but for future generations as well.
However, the task of divorcing what is misleadingly called leadership from leaders maybe a forlorn hope. More so when writers such as Carolyn B. Thompson and James W. Ware (so-called leadership experts) in their book, ‘The Leadership Genius of George W. Bush’ write: “Through his skillful use of what we call the timeless principles of leadership…along with his people skills, Bush has become a genius at leadership.”
Well, when the book was published in March 2003 Bush, that is as stated by the authors, had approval ratings of 90 per cent. Today, according to research carried out by the American Research Group, Inc. his approval ratings are less than 30 per cent.
It seems his ‘leadership’ genius has not gained him supporters nor friends. Why? Well, neither he nor the writers of the book seem to understand what leadership is all about. If you don’t understand the essence of leadership then how can it be exercised?
As for the Leadership and Learning Pathways’ approach why not visit:
http://leadershipandlearning-2e-org.350.com/home_page.htm
