The Nostalgia Episode

The Nonsense Dialogues

Where Randal and David unfurl their inner Boomer and look fondly back on how leaders used to develop before those horrid consultants came along and ruined everything.

Was leadership development much better in the past – slow, natural, organic and bespoke – compared to our modern, industrialised model of rapidly producing leaders in bulk by force moulding them into a generic corporate leadership template?

But is this just a nostalgia driven view of preindustrial leadership development which unfairly depreciates the more deliberate modern “artificial” approach? David draws the analogy between leadership development and the Japanese practice of growing melons inside a rectangular box so as to make them fit better into display shelves and perhaps produce a more aesthetically pleasing uniform shape. He is way too self satisfied with his own cleverness in making this analogy. Please don’t encourage him anymore as his ego is already insufferable.

This takes us down the path of do the competency profiles (the moulds) help produce ineffective but compliant leaders? And is this any better than the inheritors of the Human Potential Movement who aim to make better leaders by unlocking the infinite potential that lies within each of us…man. ✌️

And in a diversity and inclusion prioritised world, shouldn’t we be changing the organisations we work within to be accommodating of leaders who aren’t old, rich, white men or at the very least, be better environment in which to lead? Maybe it’s not our leaders who are ineffective but our organisations, and we need to be developing them not our individual leaders?
We also briefly address the issue of the individual motivation of participants in leadership development program. Perhaps the failure of the collective mindset in leadership is reflected in the motivation of LD participants for personal career success rather than advancing the common good? But is Adam Smith and his Invisible Hand is right even about leadership and we all benefit from the selfish ambitions of our leaders? If you disagree with that or anything else we say, please make an angry post on our Twitter account @NonsenseDilogs.

Next time, we’ll bring you some case studies of our experiences in developing leaders. Until then, it’s goodnight from me and it’s goodnight from him.

Being good evidence based practitioners, we are seeking feedback from our audience on our podcasts. So please tell us all the things we are doing well as well as pandering to your innate drive to criticise the work of others.
We may listen and adjust or we may just continue to be ourselves and do things our own way, dammit.