It’s a common belief that leaders are born, not made. However, researchers at the University of Illinois don’t think so.
Professors Kari Keating, David Rosch, and Lisa Burgoon believe that leadership can be taught, and it follows a certain progression.
“In only 15 weeks in our introductory class, students reported significant gains in three important components of leadership: self-efficacy, or confidence in their ability to lead; skills; and motivation to lead,” said Keating, who teachers leadership courses in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences’ agricultural leadership education major.
Rosch suggests that science is involved in leadership training.
“It’s a three-legged stool: we call it being ready, willing, and able,” Rosch said. “Students first become ready to learn about being a leader; then they become willing to learn the skills necessary to practice leadership; and finally they’re able to lead because they have the skills and the motivation to do it. You can’t really move on to the other legs of the stool until you’ve achieved a certain amount of this readiness.”
Rosch compares the progression to math.
“You’re not ready to do calculus if you don’t know the basics of algebra,” he said. “This shows us we need to work on readiness so students can make the most of advanced leadership courses.”
Leadership development, though, is not a solitary endeavor.
“The definition we use in the course is that leadership is an individual influencing a group of people toward a common goal,” Rosch said. “So how do you influence people? You can lead through your interactions, your relationships, your communication, the way you express thanks, your ethics.”
The study highlights two implications.
“First, students who choose to enroll in elective leadership courses may not all be similar on incoming measures of confidence and motivation to lead,” the professors wrote in the study. “Leadership educators should therefore consider nuanced methods for providing individual students appropriate degrees of challenge and support for their leadership development. Early-semester assignments asking students to reflect on their own personal journey to become the leaders they are today allows both high-capacity and low-capacity students the chance to consciously focus on their incoming status and instructors to assess their class and plan accordingly. Second, practitioners should focus on the developmental sequencing of their programs and how they administer the ‘pipeline’ of students who progress through them.”
(Story quotes: Phyllis Picklesimer. Photo credit: HALDANE MARTIN via photopin cc)
