Can Leadership be Taught? Part Two - Dr Richard Claydon.

Many things influence and interfere with developing contemporary leaders.

• The dramatic mythologies of leadership throughout 8,000 years
• The philosophy of modern leadership from the 19th Century
• The science of management, and its engineering background
• Leadership studies, and its humanistic and positive psychology roots

Each offers a deep set of insights about different contexts of leadership. Each continues to reverberate throughout modern organisations and societies. Every contemporary leader needs to be able to navigate their complexities.

How can they do that?

The data shows that the current developmental approach is not helping people with this navigation. Neither C-Suite nor employees think that leadership development programs are developing effective leaders. Yet we continue to throw money at the problem, on the assumption that doing more of the same, but somehow better, is going to magically solve things.

In this DD, we will outline an alternative approach to leadership development. Instead of putting functional competencies or personal strengths at the centre of development, we take an historical-interactional approach that focuses on five dimensions that have framed the effective performance of the social role of leadership throughout history.

• Adaptability (context & tempo)
• Power (application & reputation)
• Behaviour (momentum & connection)
• Cognition (curious & complex)
• Performance (persuasive & practical)

Dr Richard Claydon is the co-founder of EQ Lab, and the designer of the Future of Leadership module at Macquarie Business School’s Global MBA Program (ranked #6 globally by CEO Magazine).

He was awarded the highest achievable marks for a Ph.D in behavioural science. A Harvard Top-200 Management expert and business columnists for the Guardian newspaper have described this research as “a touchstone for the future work in management and organisation”, “outstanding in daring imagination” and “at the forefront of modern discussion and debate.”

Richard is a tier one tennis player, have coached tennis professionally, and also designed the tactics creator for the multi award-winning and world-leading management simulation, Football Manager.