PROBLEMS OF TEACHING LEADERSHIP SKILLS THROUGH EXPERIENTIAL TECHNIQUES Experiential Learning Enters the Eighties, Volume 7, 1980 109 PROBLEMS OF TEACHING LEADERSHIP SKILLS THROUGH EXPERIENTIAL TECHNIQUES Robert T. Woodworth, University of Washington Eileen Kelly Burton, Arizona State University ABSTRACT Experiential learning provides a useful method for leadership training. For the training to be effective, however, specific feedback must be given to participants for use as a basis of behavioral change. Assessment center techniques with the use of videotape present a way to provide this feedback. As a result of using this approach to leadership training, participants better understand their leadership behavior and are able to develop a program of change towards more effective behavior. INTRODUCTION Training leaders has been an important concern for organizations for many years. Leadership training is difficult, and many skills required are beyond those that can be learned from written material. Experiential learning has aided in the training of leaders by allowing trainees to participate firsthand in situations requiring leadership. Unfortunately, most of these situational exercises fail to provide the kind of feedback that is necessary to acquire leadership skills. Though leadership training abounds, there are few indications that there is much success at training leaders. This lack of success is primarily due to the fact that behaviors need to be changed in order to improve leadership style. In order to effect behavioral change, the trainee must not only know which behaviors to change, but also must have a desire to change those behaviors. The feedback provided through the debriefing of exercises does not usually provide enough specific information for the trainee to act upon. PROVIDING USEFUL FEEDBACK INFORMATION Assessment center techniques with the use of videotape provide a useful method for giving specific feedback about performance during a leadership exercise. Using the assessment center approach, the leadership trainee is first taught to observe and record the behaviors of others. Emphasis is placed on teaching the trainee to accurately view a participant’s behavior and the reaction of others to that behavior rather than on judging that behavior to be good or bad. This emphasis allows feedback to be more useful and acceptable to the participant. Frequency and intensity of a behavior are also recorded to aid in understanding the use of the behavior. At the conclusion of the exercise, information on observed behavior is given to each participant. Videotape adds three dimensions to feedback. First, it allows the observer to watch specific behaviors as many times as necessary, thus improving the accuracy and comprehensiveness of observation. Second, videotape allows the leadership trainee to view his or her own behavior. Careful, private viewing of the exercise can increase the participant’s acceptance and understanding of the feedback. Videotaping a series of exercises provides information on common behaviors and reactions, and over time can provide feedback on behavioral change and improvement. Third, the videotape allows the trainee to observe effective behaviors used by other participants in the leadership exercises. Effective behaviors can then be used as model behaviors in any change process. The use of videotapes to provide feedback for leadership training was used successfully by the authors in NBA leadership training courses over a two year period. Participants were formed into primary groups of 8 to 12 members. Primary groups were then broken into diads for each leadership exercise. Each member of the diad was responsible for observing, recording and providing critical observations to the other members on their performance in the exercise. Participants were provided training on observation and feedback skills supplemented with written materials on analyzing and developing an effective leadership style. This training, supported by experiential learning and videotape feedback, was successful in enabling participants to recognize ineffective leadership behaviors and develop a desire to change those behaviors. This desire was evidenced by the participants developing and completing a behavior modification plan for effective leadership behavior. CONCLUSION Feedback adds an essential element to the use of experiential learning in leadership training. Assessment center techniques with the use of videotape provide clear and comprehensive feedback allowing participants a degree of self-evaluation. The combination of these tools provides the participant the specific, behavioral information he or she must have in order to change behavior. Assessment center techniques provide the important motivating element of having seen one’s behavior and wishing to change it. Such techniques have been successfully tested at the graduate business school level. Table of Contents Volume 7, 1980 Symbol Recognition and Correlation for Evaluating Decision Making in Computer Aided Business Simulations Polanal: An Experiential Approach to Decision Support The Use of Time Contracts in Formal Education Indexing Simulation Model Response for Gaming Flexibility Moving Toward A Theory of the Use of Simulation Games and Experiential Exercises Use of Simulation Administration to Achieve Pedagogical Objectives Experiential Learning on the Job - A Business Internship Program Toward the Ultimate Experiential Exercise A Learning Through Managing Program Workshop Using Experiential Materials in Industry Training Sponsored Experiential Learning - An Opportunity Problems and Pitfalls of Externally Sponsored Field Research Projects Viewed form an Experiential Learning Perspective A Modular Approach to Experiential Learning: Classroom & Consulting Using Simulation & Experiential Learning In Industrial Settings Terminations: An Experiential Review Agenda Items -- Board of Supervisors' Meeting - Town of Jori The Objective-Setting Interview in MBO: An Experiential Approach The All-Star World Series Team Exercise: an Experiential Learning Exercise Dealing with Various Organizational Behavior Issues Progress Report on global, A Rich Multinational Gaming Environment Computer Simulation: A Tool to Teach Queuing Theory New Technology for Business Games Technological Frontiers in Computer Simulations for Business Education Simulating the Product Life Cycle on Interactive Terminals On Compensatory Demand Functions in Marketing Simulations The Use of Games at Different Levels in a Single Marketing Course to Increase Game Participation Sun Airlines: A Heterogeneous Consumer demand exercise Incorporating a Group Selection Test An Organization Development Approach to Teaching Organization Behavior CBID: Cognitive, Behavioral, and Interpersonal Development - A Skill Development/Social Learning Approach to Management Development Using a Live Case Via Video Tape A Town and gown Approach Development of Student Generated Cases Using Computerized Text Editing and Database Technology Interdisciplinary Approached to Problems in Utilizing Experiential Techniques To Use or Not To Use Experiential Techniques, That's is the Question Forming Participant Teams in Simulation Gaming The Problems of Motivating Students and Clients in Live-Case Projects Problems of Teaching Leadership Skills Through Experiential Techniques Conflict Style Measurement: Antecedent to Change - A Proposal for an Experiential Exercise Demonstration Fundamentals of Simulation for Newcomers An M.B.A. Orientation Simulation for Managing Time and the Areas of One's Life SimNet Workshop: The International Simulation Network Demonstrates Three New Business Games The Use of a Simulation Model in the Planning and Evaluation of Commercial Bank Operations Probability Assessment and Performance in Business Game Simulations WageSim: A Wage and Salary Administration Simulation Grading as a Teaching and Feedback Mechanism: Modifying Student's Self-Perceptions of Performance Can Business Games Effectively Teach Business Concepts? Development of Multiple Value Orientations in Conflict Resolution Behavior: An Experiential Teaching Paradigm in Labor-Management Relations Course Designing a Competency-Based Peer Assessment Scale for the Evaluation fo Teaching in Higher Education A Method for Evaluating Information for the Equipment Replacement Decision: An Application of Monte Carlo Simulation Simulation: A Method of Appraising Communication Networks in Managerial Decision Making An Evaluation of In-Class Student Involvement Evaluation of the SBI Program from an Experiential Viewpoint: Focus on the Student Differential Predictors of Academic Performance for White and Non-White Samples The Manager's Dilemma: An Unobtrusive Measure of the managerial Sex-Role Stereotype Are Computer Simulations Sexist? The Effect of Group Size on Attitudes Toward the Simulation Associations Between Individual Cognitive Processing Variables and Business Game Performance and Play Students' Perceptions on Managerial Functions After Exposure to Either the Case Method or a Simulation What Business Students Learn from Finance Simulations Attitude Toward Experiential Exercises, The Student-Teacher Relationship, Student Psychological Types, and Performance An Example of How to Design a Research-Based and Classroom-Effective Organizational behavior Exercise Some Issues in Game Design Untested Hypotheses: An Approach to Experiential Learning Evaluation of Simulation Games: A Critical Look at Past Efforts and Future Needs Is Self-Perception Predictable? - Some Laboratory Results An Exercise in Conflict-Handling Behavior The Relationship Between Group Size and the Learning Curve Effect in a Gaming Environment Learning About Organizational Management Through Organizational Management: Closing the Gap Strategies, Managerial Approaches, and Decision Making in a General Management Simulation A Comparison and Evaluation of Similar and Dissimilar Group Scenarios Generated Using Manual Simulation Games Weaknesses of Research Methods in Experiential and Simulation Studies