The Kansas Statehouse dome soars into the Topeka sky on Sept. 9, 2024. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
We’re getting leadership all wrong.
My epiphany came during one of those group classes that have become fashionable in the last few years, where your employer sends you and some of your colleagues off to a training that is supposed to teach you effective leadership. In my case the employer was a state university here in Kansas and my colleagues were faculty members and an administrator or two.
The course was taught by people who believed they were doing good. I thought so too, at least at first.
The training program had been spawned at an Ivy League college and required trainees to undergo a series of exercises with their team. Some of these — such as a self-evaluation of strengths and weaknesses — seemed helpful, but others just seemed cruel.
In one exercise, a colleague was required to stand facing a corner while the others talked critically about them literally behind their backs. I participated in this a few times, but with growing unease. I stood in the corner myself. When it was time for a particularly sensitive colleague to face the corner, I finally had enough. I refused to participate and said the exercise was demeaning for everyone.