William Tyler
Can Leadership Be Taught?
Summary
Not until the 19th century was a serious effort made to train people for leadership roles, mainly in military circles. This lecture examines the history and development of leadership training throughout history.
William Tyler
William Tyler has spent his entire professional life in adult education, beginning at Kingsgate College in 1969. He has lectured widely for many public bodies, including the University of Cambridge and the WEA, in addition to speaking to many clubs and societies. In 2009, William was awarded the MBE for services to adult education, and he has previously been a scholar in residence at the London Jewish Cultural Centre.
Well, I think some people have the capacity to build on what they are. There are clearly some people who are never born leaders. Do we want born leaders today? No. We want, well, you see, this is difficult. Churchill was a born leader. I don’t think anyone would question that. But he never received any training. And the mistakes that he made might well have been lessened had he received any sort of training at all. But there aren’t. But war is a different thing. Does a war require different sort of skills in a politician than peacetime? My answer will be yes. And the example I will give would be Churchill, who as a peacetime prime minister was a failure in every possible way.
Good question. But it depends upon the mentor. Our last prime minister slept with her mentor in the Conservative Party whilst married. Not a good advertisement for mentorship. At my school, we all had a personal tutor. We were not allocated a personal tutor. After a term at the school, we chose who the member of staff we wanted to be our personal tutor. So if you can choose your mentor, I’m happy, but I’m not happy about the company choosing the mentor for you. I have worries about that because of the power they have over you.
I’m all for that. That is what the previous Labour Foreign Secretary, David Owen, has argued, that we need to have proper medical and mental assessment. Now I know that is done to some extent in the States. It isn’t done here at all. But I’m not sure how successful it is in the States. Well, I’m sure it isn’t successful from what we can observe.