Montana Leadership

The criteria for the job has changed. In contrast to control-minded authority of the past, today’s leaders must exercise power through a shared purpose and vision.

Most leadership development efforts that revolve around either character or behavior are only sporadically effective because of an inherent problem: Leaders emerge from training emboldened with new ideas and ways of doing things but then re-enter a company culture that has not been modified. They find it difficult to sustain their leadership effectiveness, failing to carry over their success from the learning context to the leadership context.

Instead of earning Master of Business Administration degrees, Kovacevich suggested tongue-in-cheek that future business leaders should consider earning a degrees in "believing" in the enormous talent of the employees at all levels of an organization; a master’s in "motivation and fun" to help people get excited about what they are doing; and a doctorate in "leadership" to take people from where they are to where they have never been before.

Our world is becoming more and more complex, and in order to be purposeful and move forward in life you really need to know yourself and gain strength from that.

"People are leaders because they choose to lead."

there are in fact ways in which we in business and society can work to minimize bad leadership and maximize good leadership.

Leadership … is not the product of a leader’s individual differences, but of any organization or unit’s norms, routines and role definitions."

"Push" leadership will push people right out the door. We need leaders who inspire others to follow, who engender loyalty. We need leaders who practice "pull" leadership.

The University of Montana is offering a new student leadership program to provide students with the skills they need to succeed academically and professionally after graduation.

They believe that America’s future leaders need their own publishing house to provide a forum, so they created one this summer, College Tree Publishing. It can be found on the Web at http://www.collegetreepublishing.com.