Leadership is a Skill That Can Be Learned

Leadership Through Learning

Leadership is a subject I have studied all my adult life. It has always fascinated me. Leaders come in all shapes and sizes and sometime from the most unlikely places. In Officer Candidate School we studied leadership. The cadre in charge of the school was tasked with the job of making Officers out of those who showed up on their Company doorstep, so to speak. The subject of leadership was addressed in a very roundabout way.

We didn’t have many classes on leadership. Instead we experienced leadership. We each got our turn to try out various leadership positions while we also got the chance to watch those in our ranks make an effort at leadership. Through the twenty-three week course we we all assigned different roles to play. One day we were just soldiers in the platoon and the next day we might be the platoon leader or Company Commander. Then there we leadership positions assigned at different times in many different situations.

Leadership roles can change

We either spent our time in the regimental area (the place where our barracks was located) or in a training area. We might leave the regimental area in the morning and go to a classroom or maybe we would go to the field. In either location a candidate could be called upon to suddenly take charge and accomplish a specific task. Until you have tried it you will never appreciate how complicated it can be to get 60 Officer Candidates from sitting in a classroom to eating lunch in a remote area of the Army base.

Every candidate, every day was being watched, observed and rated for his leadership skills. The staff who ran the Officer Candidate School would rate us but so would our peers. And it didn’t take long for the true leaders in the group to understand that leadership was a whole lot more than just barking orders. Good leadership required much more than that. There we so many facets to being a successful leader.

But is isn’t as complicated as so many so-called experts try and have you believe. Leadership principles can be learned by anyone. They can be employed by anyone who wants to be a good leader. Remember that every person is a leader in one respect or another. Being a good leader takes a little more effort and insight but it can be taught and it can be learned.

It is what I do. Organizations hire me because they want to discover, develop and deploy the leaders in their ranks.