Leadership Development: Myth and Process

The field of Leadership Development, with its Charm of High flying Professionalism; Top Notch Salaries; Highly Recommended books; Glamorous seminars and executive coaches, has become a most sought after and Multi Billion Payment Industry . Organization pay huge sum to Leadership Development Consulting to find out answers to ONE question:

"How do WE Develop Leadership"?

Unfortunately, Most of the thought and process that goes within “Leadership Development” is simply misleading and deceptive. Most of the “Leadership Development” processes use Oversimplified Jargons and Over-Complied Activities that render “Leadership” as a pill that can be popped in and develop leadership skills.

Now Why did I used “leadership skills” in BOLD and ITALICS?? Just for a simple reason that leadership is not a “Skill” that can be learnt or imbibed or developed. Leadership is a continuous process through which all of us have to go through; no matter what age or post or profession we are into. It’s time we get real about Leadership and understand that leaders are not “Trained”, they are “Processed and developed”. The “Process and Development” of Leadership can be divided into two Phases "Visioning" and "Seeing Through The Vision" ; followed by a third “Activity”.

Phase One: Visioning

“Vision” is the ONLY process that distinguishes between a Leader and a Leader Want-to-be. Let me give you an example,

‘Thomas Edison lived in an era which is known for revolution in industrial developments, art and politics. Fighting the darkness after twilight was a major problem during that era, but Edison did not set out to build a better candle; he found a whole new way to illuminate the darkness. ‘

That's the kind of process that defines a “vision”. This is a process to “imagine” the big picture. It is not a process improvement that reduces errors, but the new manufacturing process that completely eliminates the step that caused the errors. It is the new product that makes people say "why didn't I think of that", not just a Mobile handset that lets you to change the cover plates daily.

A visioning process should see a problem that needs to be fixed and should be “seen through” with a single minded orientation. This brings us to the second phase of “Leadership Process”, i.e. Seeing Through the vision.

( This Excerpt discusses about First phase of “Leadership Process” and will be posted in Three phase parts. “Leadership Process” is a sub process of “Organization Process Re-Engineering ^TM ” Promoted by ReVeRsE GyAaN ^TM. )