Leadership is learned from the bottom up.

• Author: Johnston, J. Phillips
• Position: THOUGHT LEADERSHIP - True South: Leadership Lessons from Polar Extremes - Brief article - Book review

From True South by J. Phillips L. Johnston. Copyright [C]2014 by the author. Published by Prospecta Press (www. prospectapress.com ).

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What have we gleaned from these two polar opposite explorers--Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott --to advance our understanding of leadership for the betterment of today's world? Simply put, leadership can be learned.

As evidenced by the new growth industry of leadership education, the principles of leadership can be taught; however, leadership is learned in the laboratory of life. Not only can it be learned in one's daily life, but counter-intuitively it is learned from the bottom up. By simple math, most leadership lessons are learned in the heavy followership moment because the majority of our time is spent following. Even the CEO is a "direct report." In our younger years, almost all of our...