It's all about M.E.

I was at dinner with a couple of business associates recently and the conversation turned to teamwork within companies (or lack thereof). Seems that we all could benefit from some teambuilding and management skills once in a while, especially those of us in the scientific and technical disciplines, where more often than not, an individual is promoted based on his/her technical skills and merits, rather than ability to work in collaboration with others.

One of the WEMBA classes this term that is new and different for me is Managerial Effectiveness (the other one that is new, different and difficult for me is Financial Accounting...more on that later). Having been in the "hard" sciences for most of my life, I was curious to know if a similar sort of "management science" can be taught to current and future business leaders, or if leadership is more or less innate. Apparently, leadership is teachable, although not in your typical read-a-textbook-work-a-problem-set type of way. I have found the (aptly named) "M.E." course to be relevant and timely thus far, touching on issues of teamwork, conflict resolution, leadership, influence, communication, etc. And that's started me thinking that maybe we all could use an occasional booster shot of managerial skills once in awhile.