Experience is supposed to be the great teacher. It's always rather amusing to see a resume where someone talks about having “ten, fifteen or twenty years of experience.” However, experience by itself does little to enhance understanding or developing leadership skills.
As anyone who has traveled overseas knows, experiencing Chinese characters doesn't mean you understand them. Just because one experiences fire, doesn't mean one can make it, experiencing water doesn't mean one can swim, listening to music doesn't mean one can be a musician, and seeing a leader in action doesn't mean one can act like one.
If you study mathematics, you become a historian;
If you study history, you become a historian;
If you study swimming, you drown.
Anonymous
Sometimes, though, one can learn from experience as the following story following story relates:
By this time I had started playing the tenor sax. I was even asked to play first trumpet inn the school band. But I gave up music in order to go into politics. I wanted to be president of my class in seventh and eight grade--and I was.
In ninth grade I ran for president of the whole school. Jimmy Leiby, my closest friend, was a genius. He became my campaign manager, and created a real political machine. I won the election by a landslide and it went to my head. To use the vernacular of the day, I really thought I was hot shit.
But once I was elected, I lost touch with my constituency. I thought I was a cut above the other kid, and I stated acting like a snob. I hadn't learned what I know now--the ability to communicate is everything.
As a result, I lost the election in the second semester. It was a terrible blow. I had given up music to be in the student council, and now my political career had come to a halt because I forgot to shake hands and be friendly. It was an important lesson about leadership.
From Iacocca: An Autobiography. Toronto: Bantam Books. Page 18.
To sum up, for the vast majority of people, experience teaches us little.
2. DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP SKILLS— LEARNING THROUGH EDUCATION AND TRAINING
There is an old saying which goes, “Those who can, do. Those who can't do, manage. Those who can't mange, consult. Those who can't consult, teach.”
Having depth in the knowledge base is extremely important. While reading and taking classes is an extremely important aspect of learning, we are only typically learning knowledge. And knowledge is not always enough.
As many of us have discovered, college does wonders to improve both self-discipline and self-motivation; but does little to develop tangible job skills, such as leadership skills or human relations skills.
This fundamental truth has been known for a long time, but it must be relearned by each generation. According to Peter Senge, the author of The Fifth Discipline, “The expression for learning in Chinese is made up of two symbols: One stands for studying, the other for practicing constantly. So, you cannot think of learning without practicing constantly.”
Today's business graduates have an abundance of technical knowledge. They can do linear programing, calculate a discounted rate of return, develop a sophisticated marketing plan, and crunch numbers on a computer spreadsheet. They're technically solid, but most lack the interpersonal and social skills necessary to lead people. If there is an area where business schools need to improve, it's in developing the “people skills: of their graduates.
Robbins said this in 1989 in his book Training In Interpersonal Skills, but it is still true today.
3. DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP SKILLS: COMBINING THEORY, PRACTICE AND APPLICATION
Our preferred method for developing leadership skills combines both theory with experience; concept and application; concepts with behavior. The aim is to use theory in the real world and then learn from experience by evaluating what went right and what could go better. When done properly, this is an extremely powerful learning mechanism.
One of the CEO's in Louis Arthur's book, “Tycoons” put it this way, “This is mental set that's been present for me all those years--the experience of learning early that if something went wrong, you should examine what you have done wrong before looking outside yourself. . . The lesson of being compelled to examine my own actions has been of tremendous value to me through the years.”
By combining theory, practice and application, one has the best opportunity to develop the leadership skill.
TEACHING STORY: SHARPENING THE SAW
A man was struggling to cut down enough trees to build a fence. An old farmer came by, watched for a while, then quietly said, “Saw's kind of dull, isn't it?”
“I reckon,” said the fence builder.
“Hadn't ya better sharpen it?”
“Maybe later. I can't stop now-I got all these trees to cut down.”
Moral of the Story:
If you take time to improve your leadership skills, the task will not be so hard.
From MacKenzie (1990). The Time Trap. New York: AMACOM, pg. 11
