ACKNOWLEDMENT

Many people helped us finish the study on “Leadership is born or made?”.

Firstly, we are deeply indebted to our instructor, Ms Nguyen Thi Dung Hue for
her clear explanation about leadership theories, as well as her useful direction and
correction of our interview questions. We are particularly grateful to Ms Nguyen
Thi Tuan, Officer of the Trade Union of the Mao Khe Coal Company, for her
effort to arrange an appointment with the interviewee. We acknowledge our
gratitude to Mr. Nguyen Dinh Nguyen, Manager of the Organizing Department of
the Engineering Joint Stock Corporation Mao Khe, and Ms. Nguyen Thi Hai,
Officer of the Organizing Department for their detailed provision of information
about the company.
Finally, we would like to express our special thanks to Mr. Vu Van Cuu,
General Director of the Engineering Joint Stock Corporation Mao Khe for his
spending precious time participating in our interview. Through his opinions of
leadership and real experience, we gathered a clearer view on the feasibility and
effectiveness of teaching and learning leadership.
 INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, in the business world, leadership is becoming a popular and

fundamental concept. Every businessman has at least a vague idea of leadership
but a few really know what it is. Leadership and management seem to be similar
while in fact they are two different notions relating to different issues in a
business. While leadership is defined as “the process and behaviors used by
someone, such as a manager to motivate, inspire, and influence the behaviors of
others”, management is “the process of planning, organizing, leading, and
controlling an organization’s resources to achieve its goals”. While leadership is
necessary to create change and direct the business the right way over tough times,
management is supposed to coordinate activities and maintain the firm in good
condition during times of stability and predictability.
As a matter of fact, managing is a profession and is taught in various
universities around the world and one can become a manager if he has the degree.
It brings us a question if becoming a leader can go the same way, which means
we take a course, say, “How to achieve leadership”, and then we can be a leader?
Being aware of the importance of this issue, we decided to work on the study
named “Leadership is born or made?”. You may know that leadership plays an
essential role in not only business world but also every field of life. It is not
necessary that only people in authority need leadership. In fact, all of us must
have leadership to achieve our goals, to control our life. We hope that our study
will help you understand more about the mysteries surrounding this controversial
issue, the possibility of teaching and learning leadership, also your leadership
potential and hints to develop it.
In our study, we in turn meet these objectives:
1. to find out whether leadership is innate and what makes a good leader

2. to find out whether leadership can be learnt and taught

3. to discover how leadership can be taught and learnt
 After analyzing the answers of our interviewee, basing on our research, we
also draw some our own findings about the topic. because of our limitation in
knowledge and accessibility, we would like to only focus on leadership teaching
in academic setting, not in business environment, and leadership self-learning.

• LITERATURE REVIEW
Many scholars are asked to talk about the issue: Can leadership be taught
and learned. They give a few different opinions but there are two main ideas:
some believe that leadership can be taught and learnt while others assume that
there is no way to teach leadership but it still can be learned.
To support the first point of view, there are many different ideas. Some
scholars agree that leadership can be taught and learned like every other skill
although only a relative small number will become truly high performers.
Different people are likely to attain different levels of mastery the skill depending
on their ability to succeed. Others give the idea that leadership can be taught more
effectively through challenging assignments, human relationship, mentoring,
experience and setting examples than only learning in a formal class. The thing is
whether one can tap their potential in leadership or not depends on if he has the
opportunity to practice it or not. The more one practices the skill, the higher level
of mastery he has. These scholars believe that: No one is born a leader and
development of leadership is even more important than leadership talent.
Other point of view on the issue is that leadership cannot be taught but it
can be learned. The reason why some scholars don’t believe leadership is
teachable is because they assume that leadership is not a simple behavioral
science and it cannot be told that one can become a leader if he obeys some
particular rules. However, these people suppose that it still can be learned through
observation, experience, reflection and practice.
 I. THE DESCRIPTION OF THE COMPANY AND INTERVIEWEE

1. The company.
1.1. The historical background.
Engineering Corporation Mao Khe - TKV was formally established on
27.02.1982 - Decision No. 05MT - TCCB of the Minister of Mines and Coal.
Since its establishment until the end of 3 / 1996 the company (named "Mao Khe
Mechanical Factory") is a member unit of the Uong Bi Coal Company.
Implementing Decree 27-CP of the Prime Minister from April 1996 the company
became the member enterprises independent accounting of Vietnam Coal
Corporation, the state agency managing the Prime authorized government decided
to establish at the request of the Vietnam Coal Corporation. Implement decisions
of 03/2002/QD-BCN on 02/01/2002 by the Industry Ministry transferred "Mao
Khe Mechanical Factory," the member units of the independent accounting of
Vietnam Coal Corporation of units’ dependent, under Mao Khe Coal Company.
From 01/01/2005 Decision No. 125/2004/QD- BCN November 5, 2004 of
Ministry of Industry "Mao Khe Mechanical Factory" was changed to
"Engineering Corporation Mao Khe. From May 7 / 2007 Mechanical Corporation
Mao Khe becomes subsidiaries of Coal Industry Group and Minerals of Vietnam
entitled "Engineering Corporation Mao Khe - TKV.
1.2. Business activities.
• Design, manufacture, repair and installation of equipment and spare parts
for mining, transportation, sorting equipment for the processing of coal and
construction materials.
• Design and manufacture all kinds of scratches and gouges, chain, chain for
transport, cement and sugar.
• Design, manufacture and installation of structural steel products.
• Designing, building, renovation and repair of motor vehicles roads,
waterways and railways.
 • Production of construction materials.
• Import and export materials and equipments serving the company’s
production and business. Do business in transportation and material field.
In addition, the Company is conducting business activities and other
services under the law on the basis of potential and marketability of the Company
and performs other duties assigned by the Coal Industry Group Minerals of
Vietnam (TKV).
The company is conducting business activities within their own country and
abroad under current law.
After more than 25 years of construction, the Company has grown in all
aspects, both in scale and staff.
1.3.Structure.
Corporation Mao Khe - TKV is the total number of 360 employees.
Company leadership includes: Board; 1 Director; 2 Deputy Directors; and 1 chief
accountant.
The company has 06 functional departments and 04 production workshops.
1.4. Achievements.
In recent years the company has been awarded:
• 3 labor medals (Class 1, Class 2 and Class 3) of the State.
• Flag for the best unit of the mechanical engineering industry.
• Flag award of Vietnam Coal Corporation.
• Flag award of the Union of Vietnam Coal Corporation.
2. The interviewee.
Mr. Vu Van Cuu is the present General Director of the Engineering Joint
Stock Corporation Mao Khe, and is going to promoted to the President of Board
of Directors. He is an effective leader with positive contribution to the company
development, so gain the employees’ favour.
Before reaching the position, he held many different positions, starting with
being a worker of Mao Khe Coal company. After a few years, he was appointed
to take a long-term training program. Having mastered some specialist skills on
management, he was delegated to be a shop foreman. Along the way he never
ceased to accumulate experience and always strived to finish tasks assigned
perfectly, which made him recognized and gave him the position of Vice-Director
of Mao Khe Mechanical Factory , and now the general director of the corporation.
After taking up the present position, he has contributed a lot to the
company. With the knowledge in management and the ability to grasp situations
quickly, he has helped decrease the work force and increase the productivity up to
50 percent simultaneously. He proves to be a successful director who fulfils his
responsibility perfectly and also supports the workers’ belief in him.
 II. ANALYSIS OF THE INTERVIEWEE’S OPINIONS

1. Is leadership innate? What makes a good leader?

1.1 Is leadership innate?
It has long been said leadership is an innate quality - that either one is a
leader or a follower. A natural leader will always emerge in a group, and
followers will naturally fall in line behind a dynamic leader possessing the
qualities of leadership like his charisma and the force of his personality.
Alexander the Great or Gen. George S. Patton certainly fit this pattern of
leadership, as do numerous other famous figures.
The interviewee highly supported this idea, that is, notable leaders have
some unique set of inborn qualities or traits that distinguished them from theirs
peer. For example, an effective leader may show himself as an intelligent,
dominant, self-confident, and charismatic person all the time that differentiate
him from others and help him win the staff’s complete respect, confidence, and
trust. The most prominent and visible inborn one is ability to deal with tough
problem quickly, smoothly, and effectively of the leader. In the hardest
circumstances, an excellent leader never shows a sign of despondency, he will
keep calm and make the challenge easy in the surprising and admiring eyes of his
subordinates. This is a typical innate quality of a good leader. However, it is quite
hard for one to own because in fact, this requires aptitudes like sensitiveness to
seize situation quickly, adaptability in mind and working style to flourish in new
business context, and decisiveness to grasp gold opportunities when they come.
Therefore, though there are many people being good at technical knowledge, but
they cannot become a good leader. Actually, people look to leaders not
necessarily, because they are smarter or because they know something that others
do not but because they win the staff’s complete respect, confidence, and trust
through their innate power.
1.2 What makes a good leader?
In the interviewee’s opinion, there are three typical qualities make a good
leader. The qualities that constitute leadership seem to be linked with a person's
own sense of self worth.
The first and foremost quality is the sense of responsibility. That is, the
leader has to try his best to accomplish his duty by every possible ways and in
any circumstances. It is combined by two components: innate ability and training.
Only person who possesses strong personality and inborn instinct have feeling of
responsibility. These persons will not deal passively with their delegated tasks/
duties. In contrast, they will accumulate their knowledge and experience on their
own initiative to accomplish their duties in the most effective way. Good leaders
are always open and dedicated to lifelong learning to seek continuous
improvement for themselves and for their companies. A process of being aware of
responsibility, setting strategy to attain goal, and making great effort to obtain
best result shows the clear difference between effective leaders and others. The
interviewee recognized that sense of responsibility was also key implication of his
position. That cognizing his own responsibility at every upheaval stage of
company’s development and unceasing learning to work out the most suitable
decisions for each period bringing huge benefit for company even in the hardest
time is the most valuable assets for himself and the whole company.
Secondly, ambition, that is, a good leader needs to keep an unsatisfied
attitude toward his achievements. Today’s success is the higher ladder of
yesterday but must be a lower one of tomorrow. If the leader’s success of today is
like this of yesterday and tomorrow, that leader will fail in looking for constant
development for himself and his company. Once he is self-sufficient to what he
got in the past, he won’t have motivation to pursuit higher goals, which may lead
to loosing chances to get further successes. In addition, we live in a time of
extraordinary possibilities. The barriers of geography and ideology are falling.
Our markets are becoming increasingly open - goods, information, and
investment dollars move freely around the world, making businesses everywhere
more effective. The leader still keeps consecutive and changeless mind, he will
accept to be lagged behind others. Once he- the leader is so, how can his company
avoid being at the back others? Remember : nothing great ever happens without a
great ambition, every great leader begins with a great dream. Therefore, if you
want to be a good leader, you have to dare to dream and dare to pursuit it
regardless challenges.
Finally, ability to cope with change is another vital quality of a good
leader, especially in new era when every thing changes rapidly. Therefore, a
leader’s ability to call for change, accept change and benefit from change is one
of his greatest assets. This is especially right in the case of interviewee. As a
leader of an engineering company that constantly imports components and
devices form foreign countries as input of engineering work, the interviewee was
aware that to be not at the back others, there is a crucial need for new knowledge
such as IT or international trade. When he- the leader signs a contract worth
billion VND buying components form outside, if he does not grasp the situation
thoroughly through website and knowledge of foreign trade, he mighty bring
unexpected losses for the company which will affect hundreds of employees. A
lively proof shows his leading ability in recession period 2008-2009. When
recession came, he had made a great change, that is, restructure workforce in the
company by cutting down the number of workers from 353 people to 340 people
so that workforce delegation became more rationally and effectively. The result is
the total sales of company raised from 91 billion VND before recession to more
than 105 billion VND after recession. Clearly, through this case, we can
recognize that if the leader has real ability and vision, he totally can get much
benefit for his company and flourish even in the gloomiest economic picture.
Moreover, true leaders anticipate change so they are ready to inspire and
lead their people through change. Effective leaders help others understand the
necessity of change and to accept a common vision of the desired outcome. Thus,
there needs to be an alignment of the interests of the organization and the interests
of the individuals. This can be achieved by building friendly and strong
correlation between the staff and the leader and waking people out of inertia,
getting people excited about something they have never seen before. If the leader
carries out these well, he totally can make his subordinates stay by his side all the
time because he share them value and benefit.
Above are three qualities of a good leader in the view of the interviewee:
having sense of responsibility, being ambitious, and ability to lead for change.
That is also needed qualities of a transformational leader and transactional leader
nowadays. Transactional leadership is about development and management of
people and resources to get results which is essential to getting the job done.
While transformational leader implements new ideas, continually change himself
and improve those around them which provides the emotional glue that causes
organizations and the people in them to excel. An effective leader is person who
performs both functions successfully in order to bring the best value for the
company. Especially when society is moving from industry commerce era to
creativity- communication era, leader’s role is increasing important in helping
themselves, their organization they are leading, and society reach this new step in
the development of society.
2. Leadership can be taught and learnt ?
Firstly, in his opinion, leadership can be taught, but the effectiveness of
leadership training is not quite high, because it lies much in learners’ ability and
practice in reality. He said training courses must first provide learners with
professional knowledge, although knowledge only cannot help a person become a
good leader. He demonstrated this idea by the argument that many people are
good at professional knowledge, but cannot lead effectively. From his own
experience of participating in training courses which only focused on production
administration in particular, not leadership in general, what he was taught has
made an important contribution to his career development and to his present
position because leading in a manufacturing environment requires highly
technical understandings. The production administration skills taught in these
courses in turn help him enhance his leadership spirit, so that he can confidently
make better decisions.
He started his career as a worker in Mao Khe Coal company. When the
government had the program to train manufacturing workers as technical officers,
the company decided to let him take part in this program because of his high
performance and sense of responsibility. After that, he was appointed to a shop
foreman. He continued to participate many training courses, both long-term and
short-term ones which gave him opportunity to understand more about workshop
management and business leadership. He then was by turns promoted to Vice-
Director of Mao Khe Mechanical Factory (at that time, the factory was under the
control of Mao Khe Coal Company), and General Director of Engineering
Corporation Mao Khe as now.
This idea of his is supported by many management educators. Professor
Hunseok Oh (Professor of College of Education, Seoul National University)
stated that, “I believe leadership can be taught. however, I believe that teaching
like a formal class of leadership education can explain less than 20% of
leadership development.”
However, according to Mr. Cuu, personal practice and sense of
responsibility are the most important factors in leadership development. In order
to become a good leader, one has to practice what he is taught in training courses,
take full responsibility for his job. Anyone always needs to improve skills in
working process. When he is a leader, the company gets good result more than
before such as higher returns, better standard of living of workers, modern
technology, etc. what he has learnt in training courses, along with his own efforts,
job experience help him succeed. Professor Johanna Wyn (Professor of the
Youth Research Centre, Melbourne Graduate School of Education) said that, "I
believe that good leader can be taught. While some people are lucky enough to
have inherent leadership skills, and can rely on their own intuition and judgment,
leadership can be taught. People who are leadership positions can benefit
enormously from having professional development focusing in leadership, that
enables them to draw on their experience, reflect on the challenges they face and
the way that they usually do thing, and consciously put in place more effective
approaches."
He seemed to be quite hesitant when being asked whether a person without
innate ability can learn (through leadership training courses) to become
leadership. In regard to formal education, he thought it’s difficult for one without
aptitudes to apply what he learns in reality. He defined aptitudes as the ability to
deal with unexpected situations which one cannot learn from a book. When
domestic mechanical manufacture still depends a lot on material importation,
predicting fluctuation of material price and having proper reactions are vital for
enterprise survival.
“Leadership practices can certainly be taught and learnt. Clearly, however,
some people master these practices to high lever and some people acquire them
much faster than other. Like most skills, then, most people can improve, but only
a relatively small numbers will become truly performers. The explanation for
high performance is likely some combination of hard work and experience,
personal dispositions and quasi- innate traits such as optimism, openness and the
like." (Mr. Kenneth Leithwood, Professor of OISE University of Toronto).
In a word, leaders’ success comes from innate abilities and practices,
experience in work.
 III. RESEARCH FINDINGS

Before coming to our own conclusions, we would like to review the

interviewee’s opinion as well as take a look at some opposite perspectives on
whether leadership can be taught. According to our interviewee, to some extent,
leadership can be taught, but the effectiveness of leadership education depends
much on your own abilities and efforts. In other words, the precondition is that
you must have some innate traits and aptitudes. Leadership training only plays the
role as a tool to provide you with certain knowledge, skills, and you yourself
make this tool bring into play by continuous practice and exertion. On the other
hand, many educators emphasize that leadership are successfully teachable. “
Leadership can indeed be taught. Education and training as well as systematic
and disciplined experience with feedback are essential building blocks of
effective leadership. We can run aground, when we confuse the essence of
leadership with a set of traits, say, assertiveness or charisma. some inherent
characteristics have indeed been shown to be useful attributes to or
underpinnings of leadership. But we now understand so much more about
leadership and no longer see it as an assemblage of personal traits. habits of
mind, or values and dispositions, skills, and knowledge are all requisite aspects
of leadership, and all can be developed.” (Dr. Barbara Ischinger, Director for
Education, OECD). Meanwhile, not no scholars think that we cannot consider
leadership a kind of science to teach.
So what is the satisfactory answer to this seemingly endless debate? Based
on our knowledge of and research into leadership, also experiences gained from
educational environment such as teamworks, group discussions, etc., we
somewhat agree with the interviewee’s opinions that leadership can be taught and
learnt, and individual practice is essential to leadership development. The
different point is that we approach innate abilities for leadership development
from different view. Moreover, in this section, we also take a deeper look at the
nature of leadership, how it can be taught and learnt.
1. Leadership can be partially taught to those who are aware that they must
be leaders.
1.1 Dimensions of leadership.
Leadership is made up of four dimensions: knowledge, skills, perspectives,
and dispositions. The first three of them can somehow be taught, but the final
dimension is something personal which varies from person to person and cannot
be taught.
First of all, if one person would like to become an effective leader, he
should understand what leadership is and must know what it is he is leading.
Therefore, if you take a general leadership course, it’s nearly certain that you will
get some basic theories, or even the history of leadership. Also, whenever a
company seeks a candidate for a leadership position, professional knowledge is
always required because you can’t lead something you don’t understand. No one
employs a chef to run a technological business unless he wants to turn his
company into a mess. Similarly, a football coach must have some knowledge of
this sport, as well as know some popular tactics. Regarding formal education,
leadership knowledge is completely teachable, because theories of leadership
have been researched for a long time and expressed clearly and fully in a host of
studies, books, etc., while professional knowledge of each field is synthesized in
specialist subjects taught at universities, colleges. Leadership knowledge is
relatively stable, enduring, and universal. One person teaches subjects like
geography one way, he can teach leadership knowledge that way, too. He would
need mainly to focus on defining a domain of knowledge and then engage the
students in thinking about the subject. Yet this is no easy task and should not be
considered less worthy than promoting development of the other dimensions of
leadership.
 Leadership, however, is not simply a theoretic subject. You can’t teach one
how to swim only by giving him several guide books, and then try to transmit
what the books say. In stead, you have to instruct him to make individual moves
and combine them, then put him into the pool to try them. Teaching leadership
skills is not different. It’s difficult to list all leaderships skills, but some
absolutely necessary foundational skills are: communication, problem-solving,
team building, and motivational skills which can be taught through specifically
designed assignments and tasks. For example, all members in our group used to
be not good communicators. Being BBE students, we have not only been taught
many different aspects of communication skill like presentation, negotiation, etc.
but also practiced them through group discussion, presentation assignments set by
teachers. Now, we don’t say we are extremely excellent at communicating, but
it’s true that our communication skill has improved so much. We know how to
convey our ideas more persuasively and inspirationally, to listen to others to
understand them and make them understand ourselves.
The skill we would like to discuss more is motivational skill – the ability to
influence and inspire others to willingly follow what you want to do, or to
motivate them to achieve better performance. It is sometimes related to the so-
called charisma. The early notion states that charisma is a gift from the Gods, but
many recent researches have negated this notion. Leadership education now at
least can teach people to understand human behaviors and some strategies or
techniques to improve human motivation although charisma is much more than
that.
The third dimension of leadership is, in fact, extremely difficult to teach:
perspectives which refer to the ability to be self-aware, visionary, and think
strategically. Leadership perspectives allow you to understand yourself as well as
to develop scenarios that project a picture of the future. This dimension poses a
huge challenge on educators because of its heavy dependence on individual
capacities and situational essence. Similar to teaching leadership skills, teachers
usually create case-studies, role-plays, simulations and others besides self-check
tests, or thinking models used as theorical framework.
Firstly, though it is undeniable that self-assessment tools like SWOT
analysis provide us with a helpful indicator to look within ourselves, only you can
access your inner awareness and know your “inner self” fully. If you use Google
to search for “Strategic Thinking Courses”, you will see millions of results which
introduces courses teaching you how to think strategically. However, its
applicability lies in learners’ ability. It will be too soon to conclude that imparting
the principles of “Six Hats Thinking” model and putting one person into a case-
study originating from a past situation to encourage strategic thinking can ensure
his formation of strategic leadership in the future.
In addition, our world moves incessantly, so leadership in today is a lot like
flying a plane through a thunderstorm. On economic side in particular, more and
more organizations find themselves in an economic environment of non-stop
turbulence.
The foremost is the unrelenting pace of rapid technological change. “We
live in an age in which the pace of technological change is pulsating ever faster,
causing waves that spread outward toward all industries.” _ former Intel CEO
Andy Grove wrote more than 10 years ago. With the rapid expansion and
evolution of the Internet in the years since Grove wrote those words, they are
more true than ever before. It’s not just business value increasingly flows to
innovation – the ability to take risks and create fundamentally new ways of doing
things. Even the most innovative companies sooner or later face what Harvard
Business School Professor Claton Christensen has termed the “innovator’s
dilemma” – the supreme difficulty for those organizations that have succeeded at
one generation of technology to continue to surf the wave of change and remain
successful over subsequent generation of technology.
Technologically driven turbulence is exacerbated by the on going
globalization of the world economy. Established companies are suddenly
encountering new competitors that seem to come out of nowhere and appear
almost overnight. 10 years ago, for example, who would have thought IBM’s PC
business would be bought by a Chinese firm, Lenovo?
Since September 11th, 2001, business leaders have become familiar with a
third source of turbulence: new levels of geopolitical instability associated with
global conflict, environmental catastrophe terrorism, and war.
In such an environment, it appears that programs developed to teach
leadership perspectives cannot catch up with the world’s movement, and the
inevitable gap between formal education and reality is greater and greater. There
are too many contingences to take into account, too much uncertainty. In a word,
leadership perspectives can be achieved only “by the book”.
In terms of dispositions, it is certainly true that some personality traits and
characteristics (which may in fact be somewhat but not entirely genetically
determined) can make it easier or , for that matter, harder to be successful in
leadership roles. Or, that very early experience in childhood may predispose some
people to be better in the leadership role. Effects from family, friends, climate
also contribute much on the development of dispositions for leadership. Some key
dimensions are as follows:
• Propensity to lead: the desire and willingness to lead.
• Integrity: includes honesty and principled behavior and honest self-
appraisal.
• Courage: allows one to make difficult decisions and stay the course; to take
risks and do unexpected; to make judgment with no data, or at best, with
inadequate data; to face the fear of failure.
• Ambition: an desire for some type of achievement or distinction, and the
willingness to strive for attainment.
• Commitment: the ability to translate intention into reality and to act on
intention. Effective leaders not only say they want to do the “right” thing; they
follow through with appropriate actions – they “walk the way they talk.”
 It is a waste of effort to teach someone to be ambitious or to be more open
to risk taking – which would be dispositional characteristics.
1.2. Leadership can be partially taught: How?
In addition to impart knowledge, most management schools have found
ways to allow students opportunities to participate in leadership roles and
processes. They have created learning situations such as written case-studies,
role-plays, experiential exercises, etc., that allow students to put knowledge into
practice and to experience the consequences of their actions through the reactions
of others. They usually invites good leaders in different organizations as
instructors to make the teaching more lively and interesting.
David Whetten advocates a learning model consisting of five distinctive
(although sometimes overlapping and integrated) learning activities: (1) skill
preassessment, (2) skill learning (concepts and best practices), (3) skill analysis,
(4) skill practice (with feedback), and (5) skill application.
The approaches described above emphasize, in part, the use of modeling
techniques that allow students to learn to pattern behavior based on the
experiences of successful leaders. Yet, what is relevant to one individual or group
may not be valid for others. Further, some of the educators argued that such
patterning efforts could be self-reinforcing and reflect past practice rather than the
potential to impart new knowledge or insight.
Some educators suggest that it could be necessary to create ways for
students to apply their leadership knowledge outside of the classroom, to find
learning laboratories and ways to capture experience for later discussion and
reflection.
In the quest of a methodology that can teach leadership more practically,
Ronald Heifetz and his colleagues at Harvard’s Kennedy School have developed
the “case-in-point” teaching methodology, which seeks to make optimal use of
the students’ own past and immediate experience. In “case-in-point” teaching,
what goes on in the classroom itself is an occasion for learning and practicing
leadership within a social group. The class is organized as a social system
inevitably made up of a number different factions and acted on by multiple
forces. The teacher has a set of ideas and framework to offer. But instead of
presenting a lecture or starting with a written case from another context that may
or may not be relevant to the learning of the people in the class, the teacher waits
for a case to appear in the process of the class itself. Every group generates its
own set of issues, shaped, in part, by what is set in motion by the context and
content provided by the teacher-presenter and the events of the day. The teacher
imagines that what went on in the class was a case, then works to use it to
illustrate the theme, concept, or skill that he/she is trying to present. The work is
to create a lively encounter between the experience of the learners and the idea.
Everything that happens in the classroom is open to scrutiny, including the
actions, inconsistencies, and blind spots of the teacher. The students are
encouraged to “be on the dance floor” (that is, in the action) and also to “get on
the balcony” to see if they can read the larger patterns of what is going on and
figure out how to intervene in ways that will help the group make progress. All
the while, the students are being offered concepts, metaphors, and frameworks
that assist them in interpreting and naming what they are learning to see and do.
“Case-in-point” teaching engages people on the lively and disturbing edge
of their own learning because it encourages a high degree of active participation.
It meets people where they are and then builds a bridge across that distance
between the assumptions about leadership that most students hold and a practice
of leadership that can more adequately address the adaptive work of complex
organizations and societies undergoing dramatic change. A survey assessment of
this approach, published in 1989, found that of the 165 former students who
responded, more than half believed this approach to teach and learn leadership to
be either “the most useful” or “much more useful” than their other Harvard
courses, and similarly, “the most useful” or “much more useful” than previous
leadership or management training.
1.3. Leadership teaching requires a strong personal commitment.
Like all other subjects, the efforts to teach leadership come to nothing if
students are not motivated to learn. A passive learning may still ensure an
impressive score record, but not effective leader in reality. Most educators believe
that individuals who are encouraged to acquire leadership skills and character,
and who are actively seeking leadership positions, are the best subjects for
leadership education. “Knowing why, and feeling the need, are prerequisites to
great leadership development.” (Kim Cameron, Professor of Organizational
Behavior and Human Resource Management at the University of Michigan
Business School).
2. Leadership can, and in fact must be learnt.
2.1. Leadership is observable and learnable.
As mentioned above, not all dimensions of leadership can be taught, and the
increasingly complex world is imposing new challenges on teachable dimensions
training. While scholars and educators have been improving teaching
methodology, self-learning is of vital significance in filling existing gaps in
leadership education.
“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”
John F. Kennedy
You may not be new to such names as: Bill Gates, Richard Branson,
Michael Dell, Abraham Lincoln, and Andrew Carnegie. They are great leaders of
different fields, but one common thing among them is that they are self-taught
leaders. Michael Dell, for example, was a college drop-out, who then turned the
richest man in Texas. While a premed student at the University of Texas at
Austin, Dell started an informal business upgrading computers in his own room.
He then left college after only one semester to run his own company which now is
Dell Inc. _ one of the world’s largest computer makers.
So what has created these leaders if this is not a complete formal education?
Were they born that way? Definitely no, although they may possess some
dispositions to help them acquire some competencies faster and better than others.
The most important factor, however, is continuous practice and learning from life,
from careers, from experience, and people. Learning is the essential fuel for all
leaders, the source of high energy that keeps up the momentum by continually
sparking new understanding, new ideas, and new challenges. It is absolutely
integral under today’s conditions of rapid change and complexity. Warren Bennis
has studied hundreds of leaders in every field of human achievement, written over
twenty books, and is professor and founding chair of the Leadership Institute at
the University of Southern California. He has concluded, "Biographies of great
leaders sometimes read as if they entered the world with an extraordinary genetic
endowment, as if their future leadership role was preordained. Do not believe it.
The truth is that major capacities and competencies of leadership can be learned
if the basic desire to learn them exists."
Firstly, you can learn what can be taught. As a result, everyone can
understand knowledge of leadership, perform leadership skills and perspectives
after college courses in spite of the fact that the level of mastery and the ability to
apply what is taught differ among people. Yet in our opinion, leadership is
something situational, so experience and observation appear to be the best
teachers of leadership. Real experience and observation even help you develop
some dispositional characteristics necessary for leadership. Therefore, they can
train you as a leader if you really want this. In this section, we just focus on
leadership self-development process separated from academic environment.
2.2. How to learn leadership on your own.
We, in fact, are not experts at this field, and you are the person that
determines what works for you. What we mention here are just general hints for
leadership self-development, not specific steps to become a self-taught leader.
• Expand your self-awareness.
Self-awareness guides action. It is fundamental to leadership growth. Any
skill deficiency has its roots in bounded awareness, limited ''wakefulness," and
restricted consciousness or information processing. Dee Hock, founder and CEO
emeritus of Visa International, explains that those who seek to lead spend 50
percent of their time leading themselves. In other words, they know their
strengths, weaknesses, and assumptions. They understand their motives and
recognize what deserves attention. They realize they have a range of choices and
know when and why they should take action. They know their tendencies and
how they take expression in their life. Self-checks tests are designed to supply
you an indicator. But that’s all. the rest is on you. You have not really known
what you want so far? Don’t worry. Just be quiet and listen to yourself. The life
will help you find the answer.
• Learn from failure.
“Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
Winston Churchill
Pat Riley, the highly successful professional basketball coach, has said,
"You have no choice over how you lose, but you do have a choice over how you
come back and prepare to win again." Don’t be afraid of failure. Nobody wins
all the time. You can always find value in every experience, even when you do
not get the results you want. Failure is actually the opportunity to begin again
with more intelligence. Without failure, great leaders cannot improve themselves.
They do not try to plead for their mistakes. In stead, they draw meaningful lesson,
learn it, and move on.
• Have courage to seize opportunity.
Luck is the place where preparation and opportunity meet. Start by taking
on a difficult task no one wants to do, for instance to be a leader of a group of
irresponsible individuals. Don’t complain, but fulfill your task effectively. You
can learn a lot from such experience. Sooner or later, every leader faces a moment
of truth, what Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas call a “crucible” experience
that shapes you definitively a leader.
• Seek wisdom and observe.
 You should seek wisdom on a daily basis either by reading books or
learning something new. Leadership is an apprentice trade. Learning about
successful leaders and observing people in leadership roles around you make a
major contribution to your leadership self-development.
• Welcome feedback and criticism.
For most of us, receiving negative feedback and criticism is not easy. There
is the fact that true leaders view constructive feedback and criticism as an
opportunity to significantly enhance their performance. Rather than trying to avoid
it, they listen carefully, look back on themselves, acknowledge their errors, and
take corrective action.
• Practice makes perfect.
Mastery of everything requires hard practice. The superlative golfer, Tiger
Woods, obviously has innate talent for the sport. But what makes him as today is
that his dad put a golf club in his hands at the age of three. Leadership is not an
exception. In one GE's annual report, under Leadership it read:
It's about the four "E's" we've been using for years as a screen to pick our
leaders. "Energy": to cope with the frenetic pace of change. "Energize": the
ability to excite, to galvanize the organization and inspire to action. "Edge": the
self-confidence to make the tough calls with "yeses" and "noes" - and very few
"maybes." And, "Execute": the ancient GE tradition of always delivering, never
disappointing."
Are GE's leaders born with all these attributes? Of course not! It takes many
years of practice - trial and error - to hone these skills to a fine edge.
 IV. CONCLUSION
Everyone has a natural capacity to lead, but leadership development is a
lifetime process.
Frankly, no one is born a leader. However, everyone has a natural born
capacity to lead because it is natural for people to respond to nurture. People have
an innate ability to learn and grow. Anyone can be a leader because anyone can
attract others to willingly follow.
We believe that all of us were born as someone, and becoming a leader is
just one of numberless choices. Some people are, of course, born with abilities
that enable them to master leadership skills more effectively. For example, a child
brilliantly plays the piano without any training, a person almost automatically has
a knack for the practices of some complex discipline. Such individuals have an
innate ability that allows them to perform and excel naturally in their field. Yet,
unlike innate physical features, such as blue eyes or large hands, an innate
behavioral aptitude, temperament, or preference does not guarantee that behavior
will be actualized. Humans are not born fully as a pianist, athlete, engineer, or
leader. Like a musical instrument, genes do not determine what music is played.
Genes simply define the range of what can possibly be played.
Leadership is not like breathing. If you don’t focus your efforts and spend
time working at it, you won’t be an effective leader. Your innate ability was
programmed a long time ago. Whatever you naturally got at birth has already
placed you somewhere on the innate-capacities continuum. It only outlines the
possibility, the potential to perform, and cannot change. Meanwhile, life is like
the ocean, sometimes calm, sometimes rough with violent waves sweeping
anything on their way. The constant, accelerating, unpredictable change in
today’s competitive environment demands better and better leadership. Therefore,
leadership growth process never ends. There’s always more to learn. There are
always skills leaders need to improve.
Flowers must have seeds to grow from, but need watering to blossom.
 APPENDIX: INTERVIEW SCHEDULE

I. Introducing the purpose of the interview

Good morning, we are students of Foreign Trade University. We are
conducting a research on leadership in enterprises. As far as we know, your
company has made a remarkable progress from a member factory of Uong Bi
Coal Company, then Mao Khe Coal Company to the present Engineering Joint
Stock Corporation Mao Khe, a member unit of the Coal Industry Group Minerals
of Vietnam. Impressively, in the last financial crisis, your company still
maintained the development speed. Therefore, we believe that with your help, as
the general director of the company, we can have a clearer understanding of
leadership in enterprises. We are very thankful to you for taking time to do this
interview with us. If possible, we would like to record this interview to have
material for our research. Thank you so much!
II. Interview questions:
1. First of all, would you tell us about your position and your responsibilities in
the company?
2. Would you please to share with us your achievements in your present position?
How have you contributed to the development of the company?
3. Please tell us about the process you went through to achieve the present
position.
4. Before being a general director, did you ever take a course on leadership? If
yes, how do you think it helps you to do the job and boost the company?
5. Do you think leadership is innate?
6. Do you think that leadership can be taught and learned like other skills such as
reading or writing skill, etc.?
7. What qualities and skills do you think are necessary to a good leader?
8. In this changing business world, with many new trends like globalization, e-
commerce, what new skills and qualities do you think a leader should have?
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1. Business Essentials
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Educators. Academy of Management: Learning & Education, Vol. 2., No.1,

March 2003.
3. Warren Bennis. On Becoming A Leader. Warren Bennis Inc, 1989.

4. Bass, B. M. Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations. New York:

Free Press, 1985.

5. Jay A. Conger, Rabindra N. Kanungo, and Associates. Charismatic

Leadership: The Elusive Factor in Organizational Effectiveness. Jossey-Bass

Publishers, 1988.