Leadership development through experience

Abstract

The article presents a commentary on leadership development through experience. The author contends that the primary source of learning to lead is through experience. He explains that the role played by training and other formal programs is relatively modest in comparison to experiential learning. He notes that this theory suggests that experience (mostly through assignments) rather than programs should form the core of executive development. The author says the broad categories of experience that seem to matter most are challenging assignments including corporate turnarounds, start-ups, and substantial increases in scope and scale of responsibility.