Are Business Schools Really Important Crucibles of Leadership?

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Summing Up WHAT HAPPENS WHEN
Crucibles of leadership are where you find themor they find you. And ORDINARY PEOPLE GET
business schools rarely create them, at least according to the respondents CREATIVE?
to the October column. 05 OCT 2017 COLD CALL PODCAST
HOW TO PROMOTE HOME
Perry Miles put it most succinctly when he said, "A business school cannot DELIVERY OF
and should not be designed as a crucible. Cruciblesby designare boot PRESCRIPTION DRUGS?
camps of a sort, where the heat and pressure make or break the GIVE EMPLOYEES A
participant." Lim Yung Hui commented, "Business schools can only create a 'NUDGE'
context that is fertile for the emergence of leadership." And according to
Charlie Cullinane, "It would be very difficult for a school to create the 20 SEP 2017 RESEARCH & IDEAS

equivalent of a tough childhood, a religious revelation, or a life and death THE THREE TYPES OF
experience." LEADERS WHO CREATE
RADICAL CHANGE
Setting aside the issue, Shaun Greene even questioned the importance of
crucibles of leadership, raising the age-old question of nature versus
nurture. As he observed, "The 'crucible' can help someone become better or FEATURED FACULTY
more effective but the truly great were naturals."

Steffen Nevermann stated the case for the affirmative, but cautioned, "To
create crucibles from which leaders may emerge, schools must put their
students in a learning mode that challenges them to accept responsibility
for their own education and gives them first-hand appreciation of the
application of knowledge and skills to practice." Nevertheless, Kathryn
Aiken points out that "... studying other crucibles is no substitute for
experiencing your own." And in that regard, Aiken feels that women often JAMES L. HESKETT
face a different challenge than men because they are too often "put into
staff positions rather than line management jobs in order to 'protect their Emeritus Professor
success,'" which, she adds, "actually hinders the movement of women
and prevents the exposure to crucibles of leadership."
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If the majority prevails and one accepts the validity of research on the
subject, it leaves us with the question of just what business schools can More Articles
contribute to the leadership development process. Is it limited, as Miles (a
retired Marine) suggests, to "teach[ing] and model[ing] ethical leadership?"
Or can it also include the study of management practices that help create

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Are Business Schools Really Important Crucibles of Leadership? - HBS Working Knowledge - Harvard Business School 8/10/17 1'26

crucibles of leadership for others as well as dilemmas that enable one to FIND RELATED ARTICLES
"practice" for the day that such a crucible may actually come along? What
do you think? DECISION MAKING

PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES

Original Article
The new book Geeks and Geezers by Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas,
argues that all the leaders they studied, whether "geeks" (under thirty) or
"geezers" (over seventy), have the ability to engage others in shared
meaning; a distinctive and compelling voice; a sense of integrity; and
"neoteny," a trait that makes them "addicted to life" and able to recruit
protectors, nurturers, and believers through a long and productive
leadership career.

In pointing out one other thing shared by leaders, the authors state once
again the case for leaders being made, not born. These primary qualities of
leaders are formed in the "crucible of leadership" (as Bennis and Thomas
define it, anything from an important mentoring relationship to a near-death
or war-time experience). Leaders have the adaptive capacity to learn from
the crucible rather than be psychologically destroyed by it. Their geeks and
geezers may have experienced different kinds of crucibles (the dot-com
bust as opposed to the Second World War, for example), but they learned
many of the same lessons from them.

The concept of the "crucible of leadership" was suggested by Abraham

Zaleznik in a 1977 Harvard Business Review article, "Managers and
Leaders: Are They Different?" Arguing that they are, Zaleznik cited one
difference:Is a person "once-born" or "twice-born?" That is, have they had a
traumatic experience in their life (the second birth), requiring, as Zaleznik
described it to me in a recent e-mail, "a turning into one's self ... following
which one emerges with a deepened sense of self, and relatively free of
dependency on the social structure."

Zaleznik in turn was influenced in his thinking by William James, who, in a

series of lectures in 1902 published The Varieties of Religious Experience,
first suggested important differences between the relatively well-adjusted
"once-born" individual with a strong sense of belonging and the "twice-born"
person with a sense of being separate.

Regardless of the degree to which we feel leaders are made rather than
born, the concept of the crucible of leadership raises a number of questions
for us, some of which are posed by the authors of Geeks and Geezers.

If crucibles of leadership are so important, do men and women have equal

access to them? If we value diversity in leadership ranks, what can be done
to provide greater access to the essential crucibles? In general, what can we
do in the private or public sectors to create crucibles from which leaders
may emerge? What form might they take? Assuming that one of their
objectives is to forge leaders, to what extent do business schools fill the
role? Given the findings of investigators like Bennis, Thomas, and Zaleznik
regarding leadership, is it realistic to think that business schools can
perform an important role in this quest? What do you think?

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Are Business Schools Really Important Crucibles of Leadership? - HBS Working Knowledge - Harvard Business School 8/10/17 1'26

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COMMENTS

SHAUN GREENE REGIONAL OPERATIONS MANAGER, RECALL

To an extent a leader can be made, however great leaders are born. The "crucible" can help
someone become better or more effective but the truly great were naturals. Greats like MacArthur
or Welch garnered a lot from experience/education but their genius was innate, not learned. They
also both graduated from publicly owned institutions that provided "equal access."

CHARLIE CULLINANE
The "crucible" is different for everybody. Military service for Colin Powell, discrimination for Vernon
Jordan, stuttering for Jack Welch, dyslexia for George Patton! The discipline required to
successfully complete a program in business may qualify as a "crucible," but if school comes easy
to you it is not!

It is not realistic to think that business schools can be the "crucible of change" for the average
student. Business school was not the life-changing experience for me that military service was.
Hard, but not life threatening!

It would be very difficult for a school to create the equivalent of a tough childhood, a religious
revelation, or a life and death experience. A good education is a way to utilize the
experience/crucible, to get beyond it.

R. SONJA STUDENT
I just finished reading your article on "crucibles of leadership." At the end of the article you asked
if business schools were up to the challenge of turning out leaders and what you could do to
provide greater access to the "crucibles" that form leaders. While I am not in a position to say
whether or not business schools have this capability, I know of one program that does.

The Colorado Outward Bound School has, among its many programs, a trip called the Wilderness
Leadership Semester. It is an eighty-one-day course that includes hiking, rafting, and climbing in
four states. You are on the course with thirty-nine other complete strangers, divided into four
groups. The physical and emotional stresses of the trip, as well as its length, force the participants
to adapt and to adopt many of the traits listed as leadership qualities in the article "How Tough
Times Shape Good Leaders." It was definitely a tough time for all of us who made it. Those who did
not adapt and develop leadership skills did not complete the course ... .

Basically, the course is a self-inflicted trauma with guides to help you come through it, not only in
one piece, but with fantastic leadership skills. So when asking whether or not business schools
have what it takes to teach leadership, or if it is their place to turn out leaders, keep in mind that
there is a program that enriches and is accessible and designed for turning out leaders. While the
Colorado Outward Bound School is not a mainstream educational choice, it is an excellent
experience no matter how you look at it.

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PERRY MILES RETIRED, USMC

A business school cannot and should not be designed as a crucible. Cruciblesby designare
boot camps of a sort, where the heat and pressure make or break the participant. Business schools
ought to teach and model ethical leadership as an integral part of the course of instruction, but the
make-or-break essence of a crucible experience cannot be achieved, and should not be attempted.

STEFFEN NEVERMANN SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO CEO, AMAZEWARE INC. (ENTERPRISE

SOFTWARE START-UP)
To answer this question, I would like to share and elaborate on some insights from the French
Sociologist Pierre Bordieu combined with a book I have recently read, Teaching and the Case
Method, (Barnes, Christensen, and Hansen, HBS Press 1994).

When educational objectives focus on qualities of mind (curiosity, judgment, wisdom), qualities of
person (character, sensitivity, integrity, responsibility), and the ability to apply general concepts
and knowledge to specific situations, discussion pedagogy (as opposed to lecture pedagogy) is very
effective as it places students in an active learning mode.

Schools that attempt to make leaders of non-leaders through lecture pedagogy are, in my opinion,
heading into a blind cave. To teach (and even require students to memorize) principles, body
language, and habits of leaders does little to prepare the practitioner in [dealing with] the
complexity of real-life situations.

To create crucibles from which leaders may emerge, schools must put their students in a learning
mode that challenges them to accept responsibility for their own education, and gives them first-
hand appreciation of the application of knowledge and skills to practice. Through, for example,
scores of cases and group work, students have the opportunity to brick a leadership-focused
"habitus" (the sum of earlier experiences), which will work as a matrix for these individuals in
perceiving, valuing, and enacting situations that require leadership in the future. If some schools
are able to achieve this, so can others!

Therefore, my answer is yesbusiness schools are important "crucibles of leadership," however,

not all of them take advantage of this!

ANONYMOUS
I agree with the concept of the "once-born" versus the "twice-born." Upon starting business school,
I was roughly ten years older than the age of my entering class. I was very impressed with most of
them in terms of intelligence and accomplishments, but I felt many of them lacked something I
couldn't name. When I realized that the quality lacking was having experienced failure, I started
talking to some of my classmates. One woman, only twenty-six indicated that she agreed with my
assessment. However, I realized that I didn't detect this lacking element in her. When I inquired, it
turned out that she had experienced a very abrupt and violent exile from her own country, and
twice had to start over in new culture, country, and language before she reached the age of
maturity. I think that encountering and overcoming adversity is the most important lesson required
of a leader. It teaches both humility and faith in your own ability to persevere.

KATHRYN AIKEN ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, SC JOHNSON & SON, INC.

I believe that in a small way, business schools can create a mock "crucible of leadership" through
constant case study analysis. But, I think studying other crucibles is no substitute for experiencing
your own. The other issue is that since only a small percentage of the students actually engage or
participate in the discussion/debate on the challenges of the case with the professor, the learning
doesn't take place at a high enough level to make it stick.

I agree with the 25-30 year old "crucible" concept, as I also experienced great challenges in those
years of my life. These events shaped who I am today, and have guided me across my career. Many
younger MBA students don't have that experience yet, so are constantly asking the professors and

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guest lecturers for examples to make things real for them. Often, though, the examples may fall
short of getting into the "how to" stage of learning, so the student fails to make the connection.

Regarding diversity in crucible experience, there may still exist inherent bias in granting the right
line assignments to women in many organizations. I have worked for numerous large corporations
where women were often put into staff positions rather than line management jobs, in order to
"protect their success" and ensure they survived the job. I have seen this sort of behavior in
numerous organizations, and what happens is that the women generally have had to do two
separate assignments to prove they are ready, whereas the men would only need to do one
assignment to prove themselves and then move upward. This "insurance" of success actually
hinders the movement of women and prevents the exposure to crucibles of leadership. Let's stop
"protecting" women from success and throw them in with both feet to show what they are capable
of.

LIM YUNG HUI BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, ICFOX (MALAYSIA) SDN BHD
Business schools can only create a context that is fertile for the emergence of leadership. No
matter how many books a person reads about leadership, it won't cultivate leadership in her/him.

Leadership is experienced. It is a set of habits, attributes, (e.g. discipline), which a person can
pick up along the journey of his/her life. Of course, these habits and attributes can be cultivated.
Some people have the privilege of having the habits instilled within them early in their life by their
parents, for example. Others pick them up through life challenges.

The first step is always the hardest. To experience leadership, a person needs to break loose from
the inertia of the first step. Inertia can be due to lack of confidence, for example. Business schools
can create a context that eases up the inertia.

Creation of fertile ground for the cultivation of leadership is a real challenge for business schools.
The measure of success is the usefulness of the students to their families, communities and
organizations.

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