Can You Learn to Lead?; New York Times, 4/7/15

Duff McDonald, New York Times; Can You Learn to Lead? :

"Business schools’ foray into the teaching of leadership can be traced to mid-1977, when Abraham Zaleznik, a Harvard professor, published a paper entitled “Managers and Leaders: Are They Different?” The answer was an emphatic yes. Leaders were visionaries who got the troops excited to march into battle. Managers were platoon sergeants who actually marched them into battle.

But the questions were obvious from the start: Is leadership an emergent quality, both situational and context-specific? Or is it something you can actually teach? That is, can you be a leader without ever leading something? Business schools insist you can."