Leadership, inherit or learn? LO4104

William J. Hobler, Jr. (bhobler@cpcug.org)
Wed, 6 Dec 1995 19:06:50 -0500

In the conversation concerning the commonalities and relationships between
TQM and BPR Gary Miksik of Indiana University wrote, with respect to
leaders.

"..And not everyone can lead. This is perhaps the greatest HR challenge "

Does an enterprise simply find 'natural leaders' or do enterprises develop
leaders? It would seem to me that learning organizations don't simply
happen. I don't think they develop as a function of some simple set of
techniques practised well. Learning organizations are communities of
people, each individual and encouraged to be so, but as a community
committed to some common goal and common ethic for attaining the goal.
IMHO the catalysts that start and sustains the effort to build these
communities are leaders. Do we find these leaders, or do we develop them?

There are several good questions imbedded in the paragraph above:
o What is the relationship between leaders and the formation of
learning communities?
o Are leaders continuing catalysts in the community?
o What is appropriate behaviour for leaders in learning communities?

As a start the dictionary (American Heritage) the verb lead is defined as
follows: 1. To show the way to by going in advance. 2. To guide or direct
in a course. 3. To serve as a route for. 4. To guide the action or
opinion of.

(P.S. I would be interested if the Scottish or English dictionaries can
shed some other light on this word.)

I believe that there are people with a talent for leadership. By the time
these people enter into the active life of a community they are accepted
as an opinion leader. IMHO the rest of us can learn how to lead, and
successfully lead, and that the first step to this capability is self
mastery. If this is true then there is a close tie between Stenge
disciplines and the knid of leadership needed.

I am interested in the opinions of this group are with respect to the
question of inherited leadership talent or learned leadership. However,
the question of inherited or developed leadership capabilities is almost
an academic one. One of the core problems in developing a learning
community is to find and develop leaders. How is this done? What are the
practical steps to be taken by small and large organizations in trying to
establish the initial leaders of a learning community?

--
"William J. Hobler, Jr." <bhobler@cpcug.org>