Deconstructing Leadership Prerequisites
What do you think of when you hear the word “prerequisite”? Whenever I hear this word, I invariably think of the three semesters of math I had to take in college before being able to enroll in the classes I wanted to take for my major. Because of this experience, the words “requirement”, “sequence”, and “barrier” come to my mind when I think about prerequisites. Sometimes it makes sense to follow a sequence. Our cognitive theorist friends would tell us that development happens sequentially with one skill being built in order to pave the way for other more complex skills to be achieved. The purpose of this entry isn’t to knock prerequisites all together, but the purpose is to tell you why we should not have any to become a leader.
In the summer of 2010, a friend and colleague of mine went with me to the National Leadership Symposium held at the University of Richmond. While attending this conference, I was inspired by the depth of the presentations and the scholar atmosphere of the conference. The conditions created by the conference staff and visiting scholars enabled me to have my own personal epiphany that brought together my thoughts over the years about leadership. The phrase that I used in an earlier post, “Making Leadership More Inclusive” came from that experience. When I thought about how to make leadership something more accessible and inclusive of a wider audience the first phrase I wrote as “Deconstructing Leadership Prerequisites”. Heady title, but please remember I was at a conference with Ph.D.’s. I was doing all I could to fit in!
To remain true to the highest ideals of leadership, we must fight this notion that leadership is only for a select few. From the very beginnings of leadership when people were ruled by monarchs and the types of qualities desired in leaders were only viewed as inborn and male, we have created systems that set some people up as dominate and many people up as subordinate. Power is concentrated at the top of the hierarchy and those below are serving at the pleasure of whoever is in charge. Throughout my years as a leadership educator and advisor, I have personally witnessed those in leadership positions intentionally and unintentionally keep people out of the process because they “weren’t ready” or “needed more experience”.
This is what I mean by leadership prerequisites. Those of us who have had opportunities to be in leadership positions create a set of preconceived ideas of what skills, qualities, and experiences are necessary to be in a position of leadership. Certain experience and skills (probably experiences and skills similar to the people in decision making positions) are valued more highly than others and the leadership experience becomes more about perpetuating the status quo rather than empowering a wider group of people to contribute or even take ownership of critical tasks. Take a few moments to think about a leadership role in which you have experience. What are the skills, qualities, or experiences you think someone who wants to be a leader in this organization should possess? Now let me take this one step further. If someone didn’t have those skills, qualities, or experiences, but had others that could potential add value to your organization, would you take the chance on that person? I think far too many people wouldn’t take that chance.
I think the reality of choosing leaders is that one never knows how someone will perform as a leader. I believe we have a certain set of criteria in mind as we select leaders (which is usually pretty similar to our own perceived leadership identity), but I am not sure there has ever been a true measure that can predict leadership behavior.
In his book What the Dog Saw, author Malcolm Gladwell shares with readers a collection of nineteen essays he wrote while writing for The New Yorker. One of his essays tells the story of Dan Shonka who has worked for three National Football League teams as a college scout. Dan’s job is to watch as much video tape of college football players he can find to try to project just how successful they will be if drafted by an NFL team. When assessing quarterbacks, which could arguably be described as the most important position on the field, Dan evaluates a wide variety of skills. Passing accuracy, arm strength, toughness, intelligence, confidence, athletic ability, big play ability, and leadership skills are all areas scouts try to assess. NFL teams spend a tremendous amount of resources trying to determine which college quarterbacks will be the best professionals; however, there are an overwhelming number of examples when the scouts got it complete wrong. In 1999, five quarterbacks were selected in the first round of the NFL draft and only one experienced any sort of success as a professional. This circumstance is known as the “quarterback problem”. Scouts get it wrong much more often than they get it right.
The difficulty in predicting the success of college football players in the National Football League is challenging for a variety of reasons, but I think an obvious challenge is that the professional game is different from the college game. There are a variety of factors that lead to success that may or may not be tangible. Certain players may not have had the opportunity to develop or display certain skills at the collegiate level that may be able to be developed in the NFL. Individual success in any context may depend a great deal on the intersection of personal ability, desire, and the right situation, but perhaps more important than any of those things is the opportunity to develop skills and abilities through experience.
Extending leadership opportunities to others should be a central mission of anyone in a leadership position. Providing opportunities for personal growth and skill development is a sound investment in the future growth of any organization. New ideas and creative solutions are often byproducts of empowering others to take real leadership on critical projects and tasks. As leaders, our role is to develop other leaders, even if that means the leaders we develop may one day take the organizations we share into bold new directions. This is a difficult task for many leaders, but it is one that is essential to remain relevant.
Success in any leadership position may not be easily predicted through the demonstration of certain skills, abilities, or experiences. Rather than reinforcing leadership structures that limit the opportunities people have to utilize personal leadership skills or develop new skills through experience, we should attempt to make leadership positions more accessible. Create a variety of tasks forces and let people run with new ideas. Implement a recruitment plan that will attract people with different skill sets and experiences to your organization. Design an organizational structure that distributes decision making opportunities and responsibilities to a wide group of members. Establish a rotation of people in leadership positions to ensure opportunities to gain a wider variety of perspectives. These are all idea of how to offer more opportunities for leadership by deconstructing the prerequisites.
If leaders are made and not born, then why should we look for leaders coming to our organizations gift wrapped with certain skills, abilities, and experiences we value more highly than others? Rather than finding the “right person” to lead our organizations, we should recommit to training and developing a broad base of leaders who can provide unique perspectives that might not otherwise be heard.
Can you image what our organizations could look like if we deconstructed our implicit or explicit leadership prerequisites? What new ideas would emerge? What new talent would we be able to foster? What meaningful opportunities would we be able to extend? Opening ourselves to the possibilities that exist with a more inclusive system could pave the way for the type of leadership that brings out the best in us all!
In the summer of 2010, a friend and colleague of mine went with me to the National Leadership Symposium held at the University of Richmond. While attending this conference, I was inspired by the depth of the presentations and the scholar atmosphere of the conference. The conditions created by the conference staff and visiting scholars enabled me to have my own personal epiphany that brought together my thoughts over the years about leadership. The phrase that I used in an earlier post, “Making Leadership More Inclusive” came from that experience. When I thought about how to make leadership something more accessible and inclusive of a wider audience the first phrase I wrote as “Deconstructing Leadership Prerequisites”. Heady title, but please remember I was at a conference with Ph.D.’s. I was doing all I could to fit in!
To remain true to the highest ideals of leadership, we must fight this notion that leadership is only for a select few. From the very beginnings of leadership when people were ruled by monarchs and the types of qualities desired in leaders were only viewed as inborn and male, we have created systems that set some people up as dominate and many people up as subordinate. Power is concentrated at the top of the hierarchy and those below are serving at the pleasure of whoever is in charge. Throughout my years as a leadership educator and advisor, I have personally witnessed those in leadership positions intentionally and unintentionally keep people out of the process because they “weren’t ready” or “needed more experience”.
This is what I mean by leadership prerequisites. Those of us who have had opportunities to be in leadership positions create a set of preconceived ideas of what skills, qualities, and experiences are necessary to be in a position of leadership. Certain experience and skills (probably experiences and skills similar to the people in decision making positions) are valued more highly than others and the leadership experience becomes more about perpetuating the status quo rather than empowering a wider group of people to contribute or even take ownership of critical tasks. Take a few moments to think about a leadership role in which you have experience. What are the skills, qualities, or experiences you think someone who wants to be a leader in this organization should possess? Now let me take this one step further. If someone didn’t have those skills, qualities, or experiences, but had others that could potential add value to your organization, would you take the chance on that person? I think far too many people wouldn’t take that chance.
I think the reality of choosing leaders is that one never knows how someone will perform as a leader. I believe we have a certain set of criteria in mind as we select leaders (which is usually pretty similar to our own perceived leadership identity), but I am not sure there has ever been a true measure that can predict leadership behavior.
In his book What the Dog Saw, author Malcolm Gladwell shares with readers a collection of nineteen essays he wrote while writing for The New Yorker. One of his essays tells the story of Dan Shonka who has worked for three National Football League teams as a college scout. Dan’s job is to watch as much video tape of college football players he can find to try to project just how successful they will be if drafted by an NFL team. When assessing quarterbacks, which could arguably be described as the most important position on the field, Dan evaluates a wide variety of skills. Passing accuracy, arm strength, toughness, intelligence, confidence, athletic ability, big play ability, and leadership skills are all areas scouts try to assess. NFL teams spend a tremendous amount of resources trying to determine which college quarterbacks will be the best professionals; however, there are an overwhelming number of examples when the scouts got it complete wrong. In 1999, five quarterbacks were selected in the first round of the NFL draft and only one experienced any sort of success as a professional. This circumstance is known as the “quarterback problem”. Scouts get it wrong much more often than they get it right.
The difficulty in predicting the success of college football players in the National Football League is challenging for a variety of reasons, but I think an obvious challenge is that the professional game is different from the college game. There are a variety of factors that lead to success that may or may not be tangible. Certain players may not have had the opportunity to develop or display certain skills at the collegiate level that may be able to be developed in the NFL. Individual success in any context may depend a great deal on the intersection of personal ability, desire, and the right situation, but perhaps more important than any of those things is the opportunity to develop skills and abilities through experience.
Extending leadership opportunities to others should be a central mission of anyone in a leadership position. Providing opportunities for personal growth and skill development is a sound investment in the future growth of any organization. New ideas and creative solutions are often byproducts of empowering others to take real leadership on critical projects and tasks. As leaders, our role is to develop other leaders, even if that means the leaders we develop may one day take the organizations we share into bold new directions. This is a difficult task for many leaders, but it is one that is essential to remain relevant.
Success in any leadership position may not be easily predicted through the demonstration of certain skills, abilities, or experiences. Rather than reinforcing leadership structures that limit the opportunities people have to utilize personal leadership skills or develop new skills through experience, we should attempt to make leadership positions more accessible. Create a variety of tasks forces and let people run with new ideas. Implement a recruitment plan that will attract people with different skill sets and experiences to your organization. Design an organizational structure that distributes decision making opportunities and responsibilities to a wide group of members. Establish a rotation of people in leadership positions to ensure opportunities to gain a wider variety of perspectives. These are all idea of how to offer more opportunities for leadership by deconstructing the prerequisites.
If leaders are made and not born, then why should we look for leaders coming to our organizations gift wrapped with certain skills, abilities, and experiences we value more highly than others? Rather than finding the “right person” to lead our organizations, we should recommit to training and developing a broad base of leaders who can provide unique perspectives that might not otherwise be heard.
Can you image what our organizations could look like if we deconstructed our implicit or explicit leadership prerequisites? What new ideas would emerge? What new talent would we be able to foster? What meaningful opportunities would we be able to extend? Opening ourselves to the possibilities that exist with a more inclusive system could pave the way for the type of leadership that brings out the best in us all!
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