Lots to say....Leadership and taking on Wall Mart
I know, I know...It has been a long time...
There is so much to say and so much to comment on that I basically shut down for a few weeks. Add to that vacation and business travel schedules, family duties,etc...Well you get the drift.
One though that has congealed on my mind has to do with this issue of "leadership" and "leadership development". I get flyer upon flyer and email upon email from just about every top Business school (Harvard, UVA, Duke, Wharton) pitching my these "leadership development" seminars that - incidentally - range in price from $6k to $25K. Not an insignificant amount for a weeks' time.
So, I am thinking: what does leadership development mean? In my view - and this is strictly my opinion- it means FIRST having an open, global, sympathetic and empathetic mind.
Without this basis, I ascertain, it will be very difficult to "develop" leadership qualities. This basis- call it world aware- can ONLY be achieved by experiencing - directly- the way the rest of the world lives. One has to understand the world, before one can change it.
I can't tell you how many times I have met "leaders" that have been fortunate enought o have become leaders through luck and sometimes hard work, that simply don't get it and sadly are not interested in getting it. I call this willful ignorance.
The broader point here is that in our culture we assign the wrong definitions to our leaders. We define them along "mercantile" and "fame" attributes. This does not work. Just because you can start a business and make millions (though birth right in some instances) it does not necessarily make you a leader of people. Just because you can read a script well (true creativity is in the writer of the script) it does not mean you can ran for President.
If you need proof of how badly this ethos has been for us in the USA, please look back at the last 8 years of political leadership. Here we have the zenith of inmaturity and yet - we the people- via our own willful ignorance, have given them the power to basically do as they wish.
Like a friend of mine once said: "There are educated people and then there are cultured people- there is a difference" What we need are cultured leaders.
On a lighter note, please read this following blog entry forwarded to me by a friend. It is hilarious!.
http://acctcville.blogspot.com/2008/07/so-i-generally-choose-not-to-patronize.html
There is so much to say and so much to comment on that I basically shut down for a few weeks. Add to that vacation and business travel schedules, family duties,etc...Well you get the drift.
One though that has congealed on my mind has to do with this issue of "leadership" and "leadership development". I get flyer upon flyer and email upon email from just about every top Business school (Harvard, UVA, Duke, Wharton) pitching my these "leadership development" seminars that - incidentally - range in price from $6k to $25K. Not an insignificant amount for a weeks' time.
So, I am thinking: what does leadership development mean? In my view - and this is strictly my opinion- it means FIRST having an open, global, sympathetic and empathetic mind.
Without this basis, I ascertain, it will be very difficult to "develop" leadership qualities. This basis- call it world aware- can ONLY be achieved by experiencing - directly- the way the rest of the world lives. One has to understand the world, before one can change it.
I can't tell you how many times I have met "leaders" that have been fortunate enought o have become leaders through luck and sometimes hard work, that simply don't get it and sadly are not interested in getting it. I call this willful ignorance.
The broader point here is that in our culture we assign the wrong definitions to our leaders. We define them along "mercantile" and "fame" attributes. This does not work. Just because you can start a business and make millions (though birth right in some instances) it does not necessarily make you a leader of people. Just because you can read a script well (true creativity is in the writer of the script) it does not mean you can ran for President.
If you need proof of how badly this ethos has been for us in the USA, please look back at the last 8 years of political leadership. Here we have the zenith of inmaturity and yet - we the people- via our own willful ignorance, have given them the power to basically do as they wish.
Like a friend of mine once said: "There are educated people and then there are cultured people- there is a difference" What we need are cultured leaders.
On a lighter note, please read this following blog entry forwarded to me by a friend. It is hilarious!.
http://acctcville.blogspot.com/2008/07/so-i-generally-choose-not-to-patronize.html
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