Leadership Training

Blogging may be light today, folks. I'm taking a class called Leadership Skills and Techniques as part of a story about the values and tactics that are taught to managers by a variety of programs, and today involves a lot of self-assessments and exercises. I'd be extremely interested to hear from any of you who have taken leadership or management training programs, and to know what you thought was effective and what wasn't. We did one exercise yesterday involving three teams racing to build a battery-powered vehicle under the command of leaders with three different styles, and I have to say, it was one of the most effective short-term demonstrations of the impact of different leadership approaches I've ever seen. Apparently, when I'm being managed by a passive leader, I end up sitting on a conference table, wielding a screwdriver and giving orders to everyone in the vicinity.