Can leadership be taught online

People can sense it, or they won't follow you. As a leader, I have to be able to say what others are too afraid to say, and I have to say it with conviction. If I don't believe what I say, others will not. People have to see that you are sincere, and will not ask them (followers) to do something you are not willing to.

Insencere leaders quickly become non-leaders. As it should be.


Abner

 

So, as per your earlier post, leaders or managers?

 

Can leadership be taught?

 

As leadership is learned, it can be taught. So, yes.

 

You can't learn to be a leader from any single source. Leadership books may be great for helping people learn theories and concepts. However, learning "concrete or practical" leadership skills must be accompanied by coaching, mentoring, and experience. Case studies about strategies leaders employ when faced with decision-making, ethical dilemmas, etc can also be effective in helping students understand how to lead. Part of learning leadership is to learn from leaders; where they spend their time, decisions they make among many other variables.

As others have mentioned, leadership is very different than management. There is also varying degrees of leadership. For example, you may have a staff member who is part of a work unit and they emerge as a great leader by motivating others to get work accomplished. That does not mean they will be a great CEO but they did provide a level of leadership.

Finally, I believe you can learn leadership concepts, theories, and cases online but in order to really build true leaders; I think you have to have a mixture of courses, mentoring, and coaching students through leadership dilemmas.

my .02 cents.

 

But not solely by training in a classroom. Ever.

 

Honestly, I don't find the distinction useful. Most of the time in the literature it tends to be set up that "leader" = good and "manager" = bad.

My earlier post was a mostly cynical retort because I find the prevailing sentiment in leadership studies on this point to be fundamentally flawed.

I would instead define management in terms of authority due to one's position in an organization. I would define leadership in terms of the ability to influence others. The terms are not necessarily on opposite ends of the spectrum.

 

Clearly not.

 

I think it can. Their are some personality types and temperaments that may be more well suited for it but it can be taught. I am not an extrovert by personality and I have learned skills as a Pastor to the point where any time I say that to people they are very surprised. The thing is that every Sunday afternoon or other times when I am teaching or preaching, while I love what I am doing, I am drained emotionally and need to spend some time alone or with my kids playing to sort of "recharge."

Leadership is little different. It can be taught be if you are not at all inclined to it, or only moderately built for it by temperament as I am for the public aspects of ministry, you can develop those skills. I love God, the Bible, Theology, the Church mission, and people so I at least had a foundation, then I just had to push myself to love the nuances of a more extroverted lifestyle and I am now much less affected by public activity, though I still very much relish my 2-3+ hours I take every evening to study, read forums like this, and other personal activities.

Leadership is similar, I think, in fact I am simply talking about pastoral leadership here. There are some good and bad leadership courses / degrees but to completely minimize their value would, IMHO, be a mistake. I want to study leadership, be it online or on campus or in some seminar course or whatever, from actual leaders. Leadership training does need a sort of mentoring component or at the very least, I would suggest that online learners in leadership need to be applying what they are learning in a real leadership setting and then reflecting on their experiences under the supervision of a mentor / adviser who is invested into their personal development.

That is the key distinction I think, leadership training is development of skills for leadership, it has almost nothing in common with a degree in History, for example, there is a far lesser need for information retention and more personal intangible skill development.

 

This is too funny. Go Navy! :smirk:

 

Which of the two services, Marines or Navy, uses the other services SNCO to train its officer candidates?

 

This is what I came to post. I am an Active Duty E-6, current MS in Leadership student, and newly assigned to be a teacher/instructor at primarily Situational Leadership course. I do believe that leadership can be taught online, but not learned from a single source such as a book. As part of a larger learning environment I think it is very practical.

 

Exactly. If a person is living in a vacuum and is only taking courses either online or on campus they will miss some of the most important factors of leadership. Leadership is a social ordeal and involves the understanding of people and analyzing situations that can usually only come from experience. It isn't a 1+1=2 matter but rather a, "Try something and if it doesn't work try something else."

 

I do not think it can be learned online; it is too dynamic. You can learn the theories and concepts but it is about practical application. The same is true for being a manager. Leaders envision the future and point the ship in the direction it needs to go. Managers execute and manage the tasks and people to accomplish what must be done to get the ship moving to the end point.

I think a great leader is a great story teller and they can convey a picture of the future and get people excited. Learning to be a leader online or from a book is like learning to drive online or from a book. You can get the theory and concept but until you get behind the wheel you will never understand it.

 

Problematic question especially considering that there is not really a common agreement upon if leadership can be taught at all.
Highly recommended is the interview on the contemporary state of leadership research with Nitin Nohria, the Dean of HBS: What Top Scholars Say about Leadership — HBS Working Knowledge

 

Hmmmmm. That's an interesting point...

 

This is a great conversation. I still think that leadership can be studied in the classroom (DL or OG) but can only be learned not taught. For example, we just rescued two dogs from the pound. One of them was a complete mess and very aggressive. I went online and studied what I needed to do but it is taking a long time for me to learn to do it and lead him to get his behavior under control.

Leaderships final measurement is success. I can only see if I have learned it through actually being a leader and assessing the results with the dogs.

 

We are talking about officers. Anybody can train those clowns. :sly:

 

And for those readers outside the question loop … Marine SNCOs are utilized in training both Marine and Navy OCS candidates. :usa2:

Semper Fi!

 

You've got to be kidding me!? They use Marine SNCO's to train Marine officers? What the hell?........Hahaha just messing with you sir!