Valerie, I work in leadership development mainly with young adults. I absolutely take into account "who they are" as people and as learners in designing leadership development programs. As we move more into working with adults, we will try to also take into account the insights of adult education in terms of pedagogues and program contexts. But the key issue underlying your question, it seems, does not relate to age, but to conceptions of leadership. That is, whether leadership is being artful in using a set of competencies/skills (in which case we need to 'just' teach or impart them), or whether questions of identity, values/commitment(s), and vision is also involved. To the extent that they are, then we develop leaders (or create contexts in which they can develop - agency is key...) rather than teach/train them. Your thoughts?

Yonatan, Thank you for responding. I started out my career working with high level executives. Now I work with and study leadership development in college students (and even younger as I lead two girl scout troops). Through my work and research, I'm beginning to suspect that some of the leadership competencies espoused may actually be developmental in nature rather than something a person can "learn". I've begun reading and doing research in this area (and thought I would see if anyone else was headed in this direction). In my recent research with 50 college student leaders (all juniors and seniors) across 4 universities, I'm finding that these students (based on Baxter Magolda's work) while they are beginning to find their own voice, they still look to authorities and experts for "the answer" in some areas. In terms of their beliefs about leadership (based on Drath's work), they believe that that it is the job of the leader to do leadership. In terms of their leadership identity (based on Komives Leader Identity Model), they identify themselves as leaders and believe that they should be doing the leading/leadership. That is where they are developmentally. I also asked them (based on CCL's seminal work on Learning from Experience) to talk about key events that really impacted who they are as leaders and the lessons learned from them. I found that although the events students mentioned were astoundingly similar to the events that executives mentions (but college based--starting a club rather than starting an organization), the lessons learned were very different. And in looking at them, the lessons they were learning were more elementary or baseline (as in you need these competencies before you can build more complex competencies). But if you look at the current leadership development literature, there seems to be a trend towards "one size fits all" (learn this, do that, and you will be a great leader). I think it might be more fruitful to take a long view and combine where people are developmentally with where they are in their leadership journey.

And yes, I think agency is a good starting point. I am just starting a longitudinal leadership development study where "leadership agency" is a big piece!

A strong argument could be posed that the social and emotional competencies that develop with age and experience are often directly related to the leadership traits and characteristics we often seek. An opportunity to assess individuals for those social and emotional competencies exists through the use of Emotional Intelligence Assessment. Although the results of the assessments alone are not necessarily enough to rule out or lead to more informed employee selection, a person who is experienced and knowledgeable in working with emotional intelligence should be able to assist. In my own research, I have generated data indicating that individuals who score at higher levels in some sub-scales of emotional intelligence tend to be rated as more effective leaders. In addition, there is data generated by Laban Ayiro (2009) indicating that individuals with higher levels of emotional intelligence are rated higher on performance metrics than leaders with lower levels of emotional intelligence.

Reference:

Ayiro, L. (2009). An analysis of emotional intelligence and the performance of principals in selected schools in Kenya. Advances in Developing Human Resource, 11(6), 719–746.

Dear Valerie,

Leadership development is widely affected by the environment in which we live, grow, and work. First of all, you have to put the question in a context. Otherwise any answer to your question would be vague without context. I suggest the following articles:

Scott J. Allen & Jon F. Wergin, “Leadership and Adult. Development Theories: Overviews and Overlaps,” Kravis Leadership Institute,. Leadership Review, Vol. 9, Winter 2009, pp. 3-19

Megheirkouni, M. (2016a), Leadership development methods and activities: content, purposes, and implementation, Journal of Management Development 35(2), pp. 237 - 260. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JMD-09-2015-0125

Megheirkouni, M. (2016b), Leadership behaviours and capabilities in Syria: an exploratory qualitative approach, Journal of Management Development 35(5), pp. 636 – 662. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JMD-02-2015-0022

Megheirkouni, M. (2016c), Factors Influencing Leadership Development in an Uncertain Environment, Journal of Management Development, 35(10), pp. 1232 – 1254. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JMD-07-2016-0128

Megheirkouni, M., Roomi, M. (2017). Women’s Leadership Development Programmes in a Sports Setting: Factors Influencing the Transformational Learning Experience of female managers, European Journal of Training and Development, Vol. 41 No. 5. pp. 467 – 484. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJTD-12-2016-0085

Megheirkouni, M. (2018a). Leadership and Management Development Post-War: Exploring Future Trends, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 26(1), pp (in press).

Good Luck!

Thank you. This is great!