Developing Leadership Skills For

Leaders are required to set direction and achieve results. Leaders should not be confused with managers. Leaders and managers, both have a distinct but complimentary roles. Each role has its own set of characteristics, duties and responsibilities. Both leadership and management abilities are required within an enterprise in order for it to succeed in today's highly complex and competitive global environment. Management is primarily about dealing with complexity while leadership is concerned with change. The potential for an organization's success is greatly enhanced when both strong leadership and strong management capabilities are combined in a balanced yet synergistic manner within the organization. Technologies, such as computers, software tools, and global networking, have contributed to the globalization of business and have created the potential for unprecedented volatility and change. Trying to cope with increasing change always generates an increasing demand for more leadership. The need for leadership skills is not confined to only a few executive officers. It is possible for many persons to play an important leaderships role within an organization. Many organizations do not simply wait for leaders to come along but actively try to develop them by seeking out persons with leadership potential and exposing them to career experiences that are designed to develop their leadership skills. With a proper program of providing leadership learning opportunities combined with a nurturing and mentoring environment many persons can develop and exercise leadership skills effectively within the organization. Obviously if students were given a chance to develop leadership skills as part of their education they would have a competitive advantage after graduation. This paper attempts to summarize the characteristics of leaders together with the styles of leadership that have proven to be most effective. The authors have found that the most difficult problem in designing a program that will develop leadership skills for women in Engineering and Science is to ensure that they will have equal access to the learning opportunities that can foster leadership. The problem is compounded since women are usually a minority in Engineering and Science classes and their participation in leadership building opportunities can thus not be left to chance, but must be an integral part of the design of the leadership enhancing experience.