I was asked to step in and run our MBA program a little over two years ago. I had no experience or background to do so, whatsoever, but took on the job in part because I saw a challenge and the opportunity to build something cool. I also would not have taken the job had the Dean (my boss) not supported taking our MBA students on a trip like this.

Since that time, I have been mulling over, a lot, what experiences we might add to the Cal Poly MBA program and our curriculum to try to better expose our MBA students to leadership, what it means, how hard it is, why no organization or business can function without it, who might teach the course, how to get it through and approved by the university bureacracy, etc.

I don’t profess to be an expert on the subject. What little I know about leadership I learned on the street through athletics. In my life prior to academia, I never understood, really (and still don’t), working professionals that don’t “man-up” on leadership when working on a project for a client and/or who won’t step up and take risks and “own” a project from beginning to end and by doing so inspires others to do their best work, especially when the bullets start flying. Some of you have been there; others have yet to experience that frustration. In business lack of leadership means lost profits; and if you are the owner of that firm, your pain in this regard will be deep. I would give MBA programs across the US, including our own MBA program, a “D+” in the area of effectively addressing leadership issues in the curriculum and signaling to students “this — leadership — is expected of you.”

But to be fair to you, me and the program, here’s the rub and here are some of the legitimate issues that people who do teaching and research in this area struggle with …

Like ethics, can leadership be taught or learned in a 10-week MBA course? Is it genetic? Does the average 24-28 year old MBA student in the USA have enough life experience and wisdom and are they at the point in their lives where they are truly hungry to learn to be really, really great leaders? How do/can faculty be trained to teach leadership? Is the complaint of all those misinformed “do-gooders” out there about MBA students accurate — that they only care about making money, not being tomorrow’s great leaders of business AND socieity?

Think of just how complex this issue really is — we have three great military academies in the US (Air Force, West Point and Annapolis) that have devoted their entire existence and the bulk of their resources to training young men and women to be leaders, yet even these institutions, after 200 plus years of working on it full-time, don’t yet have this process and subject matter nailed. Yes, they do better than most, but like business organizations, they also struggle and fail in this important area.

Having said the above, Lonnie Hodge’s post on this Executive Leadership Climb in Tibet got me thinking about this topic and post. This climb sounds like an incredible opportunity to learn leadership skills. Interested? I would love to partake in an experience such as this.

Lonnie, tell us more about your climb!