Leadership - executive training in business management - editorial

Business Horizons, Nov-Dec, 1990 by T. Ballard Morton

My secret dream came true when I became Executive in Residence at the School of Business at the University of Louisville. In my heart, I knew I wanted to teach. For some 16 years I had been CEO of a family-owned broadcasting company, and we had sold the company in 1981. It was time for me to move on, and I jumped at the chance to teach and accepted U of L's offer in 1983.

The Dean told me I could create my own course. The School wanted to build a bridge between the academic and business communities. My first thought was to take a practical approach. I assumed that my students wanted to be managers. So I prosaically named the course "The Manager: A Practical Approach." I asked myself, What do they need to learn to develop into managers?" For starters, I knew they needed to communicate better, so I emphasized writing and speaking. They needed to learn to react with each other more effectively, so I created a meeting" environment-a brainstorming session-in which they had to participate and could learn from each other. They also needed more exposure to successful executives so they could get some firsthand knowledge of what business leaders do and why they do it. And so I brought leaders to the class-not so much to speak or lecture to the students but to answer the students' questions.

The class is limited to 16 students. We meet three hours one evening a week (most of the students work during the day). Usually we read a book each week, and the students write a one page memo to me on an assigned subject-most often involving their opinion on what they have read. They also make oral presentations to the class, which we videotape.

The students frequently meet with me in my office for individual feedback and coaching sessions. We review their memos, their videotapes, and their performance in the class, and I suggest how they can improve.

I started out by emphasizing techniques-learning and practicing the skills a manager or leader needs. How to communicate-speaking, writing, listening, reading. Memos. Oral presentations. How to give feedback. How to ask questions. How to participate in a meeting. How to work on a team. How to interview. How to write a resume. "Here's what you need to know, and here's how you do it."

A funny thing happened on the way to teaching students how to become managers. I started learning some things about myself and about leadership that I had not thought of before. The more I got into it with my students, the more I realized my emphasis was wrong. The students were improving their techniques, but we were not getting to the heart of the matter. I gradually realized that if I were to help the students-make a real difference in their lives and careers-I needed to go much deeper. I needed to help them find out who they are, what they believe in, and what they want to do in life. It began to dawn on me that these questions are at the very heart of leadership. And this is what I needed to teach. "

I changed the name of the course to Leadership." I tell people I call it leadership because nobody knows what leadership is, so I can teach any damn thing I want. The Dean takes umbrage at my humor, but I think it's pretty close to the truth.

My mission became not so much to teach techniques as to help students discover who they are and what they want to do with their lives. The techniques are still important, but I use them more and more as building blocks toward self-knowledge. We can discover a great deal about ourselves through writing, through communicating our thoughts in public, through listening, and through reading. But these are only a means to an end.

From my experience, observation, and teaching, I believe that successful leaders know who they are, what they believe in and why, and where they want to go. Armed with this self-knowledge, they then give what is uniquely themselves to others (their followers). Above all, they care. They care about their organizations, their people, and their mission in life.

Through my teaching I have found some techniques and exercises that help students and executives learn about themselves and help them give "themselves" to others. We all know that a good leader must be a good communicator. But a good communicator is not necessarily a good leader. What's the difference? I think the difference is in what and how the leader communicates. Ultimately leaders communicate who they are. They do it by "giving" what they have to offer to others. They share their beliefs, values, and experiences with their followers. They don't hide behind a corporate mask. They develop their own style.

I have found four exercises especially helpful to both students and executives in gaining self-knowledge and developing their own style.

1. Writing one-page memos. We can't hide in one page. We have to express ourselves clearly and succinctly. We have to think clearly. When we read a book or an article by Peter Drucker, how does what he says jibe with our own experience? How do we react to it? What are we going to do about it on the job?