Educating Principled Leaders
As we begin a new school year and welcome the class of 2011, I want to focus on leadership. The mission of The Citadel reads as follows:
The Citadel's mission is to educate and prepare graduates to become principled leaders in all walks of life by instilling the core values of The Citadel in a challenging intellectual environment.
Leadership is an area which is receiving considerable attention given recent failures in leadership at both the corporate and national level. In addition it has become a favorite topic in higher education with about 65% of colleges and universities mentioning it in their mission statement. Thus The Citadel is not unique in its interest in leadership. However, I believe The Citadel is unique in its total commitment to its mission. From day one, we stand up for the idea of leadership and are devoted to educating principled leaders.
First what is leadership? House (2004) defines leadership as the "ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members." Although there are many different definitions of leadership, they are all fairly similar in their emphasis.
How do we educate a leader? Some would argue that leaders are born rather than developed. For example Stanley Turecki (1985) states that our genetics and brain chemistry greatly determine who we are and who we become. Leadership, timidity, risk taking and other characteristics have a constitutional aspect according to his position. While there is some truth to this position, I would strongly argue that many of the characteristics of leaders are skills and behaviors which can be learned in the same ways as any other behaviors or skills are learned.
If we can teach leadership skills, what are some of the qualities of effective leadership to be taught? Effective leaders model the behavior they want others to demonstrate. We have learned that one of the best ways of teaching new skills is through modeling or demonstrating that skill to others. If you want to educate principled leaders provide them with models who demonstrate these characteristics. In order to educate principled leaders the faculty, staff and cadet leadership have to exhibit these skills. In my 16 years at The Citadel, I have come to appreciate how hard we attempt to meet this teaching objective.
Effective leaders have to be skilled in the task at hand. One of the purposes of a general education is to help students learn how to learn. As I look back on what I learned in college, most of the information is not as important as the specific skills I developed during this learning process. Academics at The Citadel is designed to be challenging and requires the development of these specific skills in learning to learn.
Leaders have to have initiative. They have to be able to initiate activities and to finish them. The responsibility given to students at The Citadel and the demands made on them in the classroom are designed to develop the initiative to start and finish whatever needs to be done.
Leaders have to have a certain amount of charisma. By charisma I do not necessary mean popularity although some writers would disagree. For example Franklin D. Roosevelt felt that much of leadership had to do with friendship. I believe that charisma in leadership involves others trusting the decision making ability of the leader and a belief that the leader has his followers' best interest in mind. Much of cadet life involves developing skills in working with others and looking after fellow students. Leaders know about their team members and where they stand. FDR once said that there was no lonelier feeling in the world than to think you are leading the parade and looking back and seeing that no one is following.
Leaders listen to what others say and not to just how they say it. Pfeffer and Sutton (2000) in their book The Knowing Doing Gap make an interesting point about how our society pays too much attention to the elegance with which someone speaks rather than to what they actually do. Good leaders listen for content and then look for action rather than simply focusing on the glitz of the statement.
Good leaders know themselves. They understand their limitations and strengths and are open to changing their mind based on new information - they do not see themselves as infallible. I think one of the most interesting ways that The Citadel teaches leadership is through teaching students to take orders. Sam Rayburn, former speaker of the House of Representatives, said that you cannot be a leader and ask others to follow you, unless you know to follow. The cadets certainly learn this part of leadership during their freshman year and throughout their college experience.
A good leader needs to know how to have the ability to encourage and nurture others. The support of a cadet for a cadet has gotten many of a discourage student through The Citadel. In addition I would like to think that the support of a faculty member for a student has done the same. Certainly I have heard from a number of alumni about how important the support of their roommate and/or a faculty member has been for them being able to make it through.
There is more I could say about the development of leadership skills at The Citadel but maybe I will come back to the topic at a later date. Until then think about the leadership skills you learned at The Citadel and about the fact that The Citadel does not just mention leadership in its mission statement. We stand up for this belief and try to live it. I'll end with a quote from Bobby Kennedy about the importance of having an idea for which one is willing to stand. He made this statement in his speech following his last victory in the democratic primary in California - just minutes before his death.
"Each time a man stands up for an idea, he sends a tiny ripple of hope"
House, R.M. (2004). Culture, leadership and organizations: The GLOBE study of 62 societies. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks.
Pfeffer, J. & Sutton, R.I. (2000). The knowing-doing gap. Harvard Business School Press, Boston
Turecki, Stanely (1985). The difficult child. Bantam: New York.
