Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/59976
GREAT T Leaders What Makes Many educators are finding that developing great leaders isn't about teaching skill sets. It's about helping students adopt the essential behaviors that all great leaders share. by Tricia Bisoux illustration by José Ortega Those who study leadership have spent years asking the dif- ficult questions: Can leadership be taught? Can it be learned? One look at the number of new leadership-based centers and programs cropping up at schools worldwide makes it seem as if they've found their answers. And yet, even as business edu- cators design leadership courses, many seem uncomfortable with the idea of "teaching leadership." Teaching implies the delivery of knowledge from one person to another; where leadership is concerned, they say, students must often discov- er that knowledge for themselves. According to business educators, the deeper they delve into what makes great leaders, the more they realize that true leadership cannot be transmitted to students as a neat bundle of skills or delivered via a series of guest lecturers and discus- sions. So says Terry Pearce, author of Leading Out Loud and instructor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley and the London School of Business. True leadership, he emphasizes, must be experienced, not taught. 40 BizEd SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2005