De-Educating Leadership Education
October 7, 2007
This movie captures some of the thinking of this blog over the last year:
‘Future of Customized Executive Education’
“Unfortunately the term “political” tends to hint at a seedy underhand style of management/leadership. Can you quickly define political in your context”
It’s interesting to see politics framed in the negative, as in ‘politicking.’ Politics cannot be purged of negativity, and I’m not attempting some utopian conception of the term. Stating ones concerns over power, control and inclusion in national and international public affairs involves one in active opposition. Leadership & management are the imposition of one’s concerns on others, and therefore cannot avoid antagonisms. Education is therefore also political, leadership education doubly so.
Conflating ‘politics’ with ’seediness’ betrays a faith in an unsullied form of supra-political engagement: one that transcends corruption. If one believes that underhand practices must be countered by forces of accountability, transparency and inclusive deliberation, then one’s attention is already in the realm of politics. Recognizing the error of inculcating a ’seediness of style’ via educative processes is the embodiment of a political conception of leadership education. But beware of an apolitical negation of antagonism.
