One of my roles outside of Insight & Influence is as the NSW Co-ordinator of the Australian Psychological Society’s Interest Group in Coaching Psychology (IGCP). In this capacity, I organised a public debate between Randal (my partner here at I&I) and Peter Zarris, the National Convenor of IGCP on leadership.
The publicity blurb for the event was:
The NSW APS Interest Group in Coaching Psychology invites you to join us for what promises to be a lively and controversial evening.
Live Debate: Natural born leader v The developed leader
“Not everyone deserves or will benefit from leadership development. It should be reserved for a select few who can show that they have what it takes to be a leader”.
In the red corner (affirmative), we have Peter Zarris, IGCP National Convenor and CEO of Opic Consulting, a Melbourne consultancy that provides a range of on-line psychological assessment and development products and services. Peter’s approach to leadership development starts with assessing participants’ leadership potential using personality and aptitude tests. He believes that “leadership development is so far ranging that you have to measure the target development. It’s a waste of time for those who don’t have the potential.”
In the blue corner (negative), we have Randal Tame, the CEO of Insight & Influence, a leading Sydney change leadership consultancy and an Adjunct Lecturer at Macquarie Graduate School of Management. Randal believes too much leadership development follows the 19th Century’s “Great Man” approach which suggests that leaders have special personal qualities which set them apart from their followers. He holds that research instead shows that leadership is a group based phenomena and that anyone can be a leader.
Do you agree? Disagree? Both schools of thought have their supporters and the evening will be an opportunity to hear each side argue their case as persuasively as possible, present evidence, anecdotes and examples to support their claims. The debate will then move into the audience with small group discussions and will conclude with a moderated open discussion of the issues. We expect discussion to continue well into the evening as audience members pick up the batons and continue the debate over a cold drink.
If you work in the area or are interested in leadership, join us for what should be both an entertaining and informative evening. Please feel free to invite friends or colleagues that may like to join us and be part of the evening. We look forward to seeing you there!
I wrote the debate proposition to be deliberately provocative.
It all came from a conversation I had with Peter about leadership development where he said;
“You know, the more I do this the more I realise that some people just aren’t meant to be leaders and it’s a waste of time putting them on leadership development programs. ”
“In fact, ” he continued, ” it’s like trying to teach a pig to sing”.
“What do you mean?” I asked, not getting the connection.
“It sounds like crap and annoys the pig, so just don’t try it in the first place.”
“You really need to have a good talk with Randal about this because that’s the opposite of what he believes.” I replied, “In fact, we should get you two guys up on stage and slug it out.”
“Sounds like fun” said Peter.
From tiny acorns ….
The debate itself was a great success with over 90 attendees at the Royal Automobile Club in Sydney on April 6.
We have also just repeated the event in Brisbane last Friday night May 29 and attracted over 40 people to the Mill Hotel.
One of the participants said it was the best event she had been to in years.
If any of you attended either of the two events let us know what you thought.
We recorded the Sydney debate and if you would like to listen please click on the below link.
Warning: it’s a big mp3 file (about 36Mb) and runs for 1 hr 22 minutes.
It includes my introduction, the debate and the subsequent audience discussion.
Here’s the link to the recording of the Sydney debate.
After Sydney and Brisbane, we intend to take the show to Canberra in the near future.
If you would like Peter and Randal to present the debate at your conference, convention, wedding or bar mitzvar let us know. Happy to travel.
Cheers
David