Leadership: experience is the best teacher

Abstract

Purpose

The authors introduce an experience‐based approach offering a comprehensive new way of developing leaders. It knits together on‐the‐job experience, life experience, and specific skill development, rather than presenting employees with a smorgasbord of classes and programs that is tenuously linked (if it is linked at all) to career development, succession planning, or business objectives.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors base their conclusions on previous Accenture research and their observations of leadership technology as used by organizations.

Findings

Advances in learning models, information technology, and leadership research strongly suggest that new approaches like experience‐based learning hold strong promise in helping companies meet the high performance challenge.

Research limitations/implications

The experience‐based approach bridges the gap between practice and performance through creative uses of information and communication technology. Research to validate and show the impact of the experience‐based approach compared to various alternatives would be welcome.

Practical implications

The experience‐based method can be adapted to the developmental needs and opportunities of leaders and potential leaders at all stages of their careers, and also to the changing needs of organizations operating in complex and uncertain environments. The goal of experience‐based leadership development is to equip employees to mine their experiences – continuously and intensively – for insight into what it takes to lead, what it takes to grow as a leader, and what it takes to cultivate the leader in others (peers and superiors as well as subordinates).

Originality/value

Today's challenge for organizations is to grow more leaders over a larger terrain and faster than ever before. Article explains how a program that uses learning models, information technology, and leadership research to link experience and leadership training can help companies produce higher quality leaders more efficiently.

Citation

Thomas, R.J. and Cheese, P. (2005), "Leadership: experience is the best teacher", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 24-29. https://doi.org/10.1108/10878570510594424