IMHO Installment #8: Leadership Training Is Pretty Much Useless

 

I'd like to discuss so-called "leadership training" (but, fer Chris'sakes, in the brief, desultory manner my readers have come to expect in this obnoxious little series). We've all heard about these classes. Executives love to brag about participation in them; middle-managers can't seem to get enough either -- for resume fluff.

 

But what IS it?  You'd think, after all, that "leadership" is simply what the word implies:  There you are, in CHARGE of some group or project, right? How are you going to handle the situation? I took the classes one weekend. Ironically, no one there was in charge of anything. But, the free lunch was tasty -- smoked turkey and juice boxes. (I showed great leadership in the lunch department -- ate twice as much as the other losers.)

 

When you think about it, such classes are named rather suboptimally.  Leadership, by definition is simply whatever the person in charge (... wait for it...) does! He or she either does it well or not; but either way, it's leadership.

 

Maybe they ought to call it "good leadership" or maybe "how to get dirty, lower people to do tedious, laborious shit for you for ridiculously low amounts of money and you still get all of the credit for it if it's successful but, either way, you get a huge-ass bonus." (That'd be too long of a title, right?) 

 

In the end, though, IMHO, these classes are pretty much useless. Why?  Because you're either an asshole or you aren't. If you are, your leadership will suck; if you aren't, you'll probably do okay. I doubt any class can deassholize a person. And that's my point. Quod erat demonstrandum.

 

(I like that word, deassholize. Don't you like how I dropped the "e" in "hole" and then added the "ize" suffix?  Sounds like a real word.  ps Get your ass over to www.Despair.com.)