Leadership in the workplace has become an important training issue for many organizations. Although professional managers have existed in the workplace for only a little more than a century, the last 25 years have seen an increase in emphasis not on building effective managers, but rather on building effective leaders. This emphasis on leadership is found not only at the highest levels of the organizations, where it might naturally be expected, but throughout the organization. Team leaders, group leaders, division leaders and other types of leaders have become nearly commonplace, and the term "manager" is viewed--in some organizations--as derogatory and old-fashioned. There is no dearth of training techniques that can be employed to help build leaders, and authors of successful leadership books lead seminars on how to put the ideas in those books into practice. This research considers various types of leadership training techniques, and evaluates those that are likely to succeed. Finally, a training module outline is presented for helping students develop their leadership skills.
While many Americans believe that leaders are born, not made, or that circumstances may cause a particular individual to assume a leadership role that otherwise would escape him or her, many executives believe that leadership can be taught. In a recent study, 81 percent of chief information officers surveyed were of the opinion that leadership can be taught, and 47 percent have participated in leadership programs at their current employer ("Research," 2003). It is this belief that leadership can be taught that has given rise to corporate leadership training as well as degrees in corporate leadership and organizational leadership at the college level.
Organizations are willing to spend a considerable amount of their resources in an effort to train their managers to become leaders. In 2000, it is estimated that more than $50 billion was spend on c...