Leadership: experience is the best teacher

Leadership: experience is the best teacher

Thomas R.J., Cheese P. Strategy & Leadership (USA), 2005, Vol. 33, No. 3, Start page: 24, No. of pages: 6

Purpose – to introduce an experience-based approach offering a comprehensive new way of developing leaders, which knits together on-the-job experience, life experience, and specific skill development, rather than presenting employees with a smorgasbord of classes and programs that is tenuously linked (if it is linked at all) to career development, succession planning, or business objectives. Design/methodology/approach – bases the conclusions on previous Accenture research and on observations of leadership technology as used by organizations. Findings – advances in learning models, information technology, and leadership research strongly suggest that new approaches like experience-based learning hold strong promise in helping companies meet the high performance challenge. Research limitations/implications– research to validate and show the impact of the experience-based approach compared to various alternatives would be useful. Practical implications – the experience-based method can be adapted to the developmental needs and opportunities of leaders and potential leaders at all stages of their careers, and also to the changing needs of organizations operating in complex and uncertain environments. Originality/value –explains how a program that uses learning models, information technology, and leadership research to link experience and leadership training can help companies produce higher quality leaders more efficiently.Style:Conceptual paperISSN: 1087-8572Reference: 34AZ588

Keywords: Leadership, Management training, Training