...We are the sum of our experiences...

Last night I started thinking about leadership. Well, more deeply anyway.

It all started after I found a program online claiming that I could learn to be a leader in two days, for a reasonable fee.

First I laughed. How could an organisation be so presumptuous to think that they can teach leadership in two days?

Then I got a little angry. How can the people who run this course believe that they can teach leadership? Then, angry at the people who take up the course – people who think it's as simple as a weekend and a textbook. Who would buy into a program like this? Who would run a program like this?

After five years in AIESEC and significant personal investment I've come to believe that leadership is experiential.

I believe that people have key experiences that form them – specific instances and times when they can say they felt like they were a leader, or that others considered them to be a leader.

For me, a leadership experience is like a mountain. It's the image I keep thinking of. For some people, their leadership experience is mostly flat, with a few hills. Others have steep, high peaks. For some it's ongoing, a mountain range.

After five years of experiential learning in AIESEC would I have the skill to create a program like this? Probably not. I've had a few 'mountain' moments, which I can share, but I'm not an expert.

Are the leaders that I know, capable of doing this? Perhaps, some. They're the 'mountain range' people, who have had wide experiences and are wiser because of them. However, after thinking about the type of people that they are, I don't think they're the type of people that would consider themselves experts in leadership. Rather, they're experts in applying their leadership experiences.