Upon learning the skill approach of leadership theory, it becomes increasingly clearer why this would be attractive for the study of leadership. Being a theory that focuses primarily on the developmental characters of the leader, skill approach of leadership theory enlightens the possibility of training developing leadership for people (Northouse, 2013). As more attention has been paid to people’s leadership skills in work and school setting, the training of it has also become a popular topic that people crave for.
Inevitably, this brings to the commercialization of the training of leadership. Weekend seminars and meetings are held for leaders to exchange their experiences; movies and books of great leaders are filmed and published. We now have many choices to learn how our leadership skills can be trained and developed through a series of practices.
Is this really a good thing? To be honest, I doubt it. It is very true that we are granted of more accesses to the training of our leadership skills. Nevertheless, most of these “educational” resources on leadership development are not as creditable as we would hope. Because of the multivariate nature of leadership skills (Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2012), training of leadership could be a very personal thing. Nowadays, many of the books published on leadership encourage people to practice their leadership through all sorts of methods. However, when these practices work for some people, they are not necessarily useful for all people of different situations. Just as it is said, one man’s meat is another man’s poison; same philosophy applies to the training of leadership.
Another problem of these books published for the improvement of our leadership is that most of the authors are not as creditable. As discussed in text, the development of leadership could be attribute to many different factors (Northouse, 2013). These authors conclude their personal factors that have contributed to their leadership skills, which may or may not be empirically proven. They see the relations between their lives and the development of their leadership which may or may not exist. Selling these “relationships” to readers without testing them would not be a responsible move.
What does this indicate? People’s increasing desire for leadership is very understandable, which also drives our researches and studies for the development of it. However, when striving to improve our leadership skills, we should also be aware to the different qualities of resources available in market. It is better that we choose the most appropriate, empirically proven theories for the training of our leadership, instead of wasting money on buying books that are not as useful for our development.
Reference:
Hughes, R. L., Ginnett, R. C., & Curphy, G. J. (2012). Leadership: Enhancing the lessons of experience. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies.
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
SUSAN MICHELE GROW says
Deciding on a leadership program to teach oneself or a group of employees in an organization is not an easy task. As you have stated, most of the authors of leadership improvement books and seminars lack credibility and empirical evidence that their products will deliver. Even Northouse (2013) points to the criticism of the different leadership approaches in his book. For instance, the research on the skills approach to leadership indicates results which are contradictory and inconclusive. The situational approach to leadership does not clarify how commitment combines with competence to form the different levels of subordinate development, yet it is an important factor for the success of this approach.
In this regard, deciding on a leadership approach to utilize in a setting where there may be many aspects to consider such as levels of education, maturity, and experience, is at best a gamble. Getting the required results may mean investing in different styles and hoping for the best. I agree that the best way to approach this task is weed out any source which is not based on research. I once worked with someone who claimed to have a background in teaching leadership skills. This person had a “certificate” to show management that he could develop leadership skills in the rest of our group. After some checking, it was determined that the certificate was given to this person after taking a four hour coaching/leadership seminar in which the person skipped the last two hours by leaving at the lunch break. Luckily, management continued to look for a better program.
References:
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice (6th edition). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.