If we taught piano like we teach leadership, here are a few options of how we’d do it.

Method 1

1. Put twenty or more people who wanted to learn piano in a room
2. Lecture about music theory for a few lessons
3. Talk about the lives of historical famous piano players
4. Point them to a piano on a stage with an audience full of people who will evaluate them and tell them to play
5. Tell them it’s okay to make mistakes, everybody does
6. Wish them luck and have them play

Method 2

1. Put them in a room with other piano players who learned from other piano players who learned from piano players etc, but no one learned from someone who learned to teach piano
2. Hope they learn through osmosis
3. If they don’t learn fast enough, kick them out

Method 3

1. Don’t do anything
2. Hope they read a bunch of books on the subject
3. Hope they learn on their own

Comment

Not all teachers of leadership follow methods like the above, but many do, probably most. I plan to change all that, as I allude to in my posts “How to start to lead,” and “A leadership dream.”

• ← Sunday non-judgment: Coffee for young mormons?
• See Joshua Spodek on leadership at General Assembly, Sunday October 19 →