Epic Think Tank
Leadership for the Top Team
Leadership and learning
'Leadership and learning are indispensable to
each other.' John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)
With great power comes great responsibility
(to quote Spiderman's Dad). The people at the top of large
organisations have a hugely enhanced capacity, as individuals,
to affect those organisations' destinies for good or ill -
with the result that they often become closely aligned with
the personal qualities of their leaders. Virgin without Branson,
Body Shop without Roddick, are unimaginable.
High-profile, transformational leaders can produce
great success for the enterprises they head up. Conversely,
one need only look at the recent history of Marconi to see
what havoc can be wrought when the top gets it wrong. The
knowledge and skills that inform high-level decision-making
are obviously of critical importance.
So with great power comes great training need…
Or does it?
What exactly are the knowledge needs of top
leaders? Do they have distinctive requirements in this regard
or are they fundamentally much like anyone else (just more
motivated)? What are leaders like as learners - and is leadership,
at this level, something that can be learned, or something
entirely innate?
Several Think Tank debates have addressed the
topic of leadership, but this is the first time we have focused
on leadership for the top team. We asked a group of learning
professionals from both public and private sectors, all of
them near the top of their respective organisations, to debate
the following questions:
- Are leaders different?
- How do we engage leaders as learners?
- How can we keep leaders learning?
On the following pages you can read the results of this fascinating
debate.
Next>>
Cometh the hour, cometh the...MBA?
Learning from the post boy
Tough love for top leaders
Conclusion
|
