Learning Effective Leadership
Leadership is influence. When someone exerts influence, in any manner, they are leading.
People have been writing about leadership for thousands of years. Indeed, the first long story or “book” written by humans, The Epic of Gilgamesh, contains implicit lessons on leadership.
Leadership has been extensively studied by researchers. As a result, there are widely accepted models of leadership, for which peer reviewed research has been conducted. The goal of such a model is to describe or predict outcomes, and sometimes to explain the cause-and-effect relationships.
In addition, many leadership styles have been discussed in both popular and academic literature. A leadership style is the way that someone behaves when they are leading.
Some people are natural leaders. But leadership can be learned as well. For an organization to be agile, it is essential that most people are aware of what effective and positive leadership styles look like, and those who are in leadership roles need to have leadership skills. This is so important for agility because agility rests on people acting efficaciously as situations arise—often outside of any process that they are using. For that to occur and go well, people need to have good leadership skills.
The Agile 2 Foundations course teaches trainees the most widely accepted leadership models. These include Path-Goal Theory, Transformational Leadership, Leader-Member Exchange Theory, and many others. In addition, effective leadership styles are taught, including servant leadership and Socratic Inquiry (which is actually a form of leadership). Trainees are taught that none of these styles is general purpose, but rather that different styles are necessary in different situations.
Teaching someone leadership theory does not make them a good leader, but for someone to improve their leadership, they need to learn a theoretical foundation so that they have a mental framework. They are then ready to be coached on their own individual leadership behavior.
An effective leadership training program should include:
Instruction in accepted leadership models
Instruction in effective leadership styles
Coaching and workshops to help people to interpret real situations, using their newly acquired knowledge
Self-awareness coaching, to help people to become more in tune with their own behavior