James MacGregor Burns observed that “leadership is
one of the most observed and least understood phenomena
on the earth”. This article attempts to demystify
“leadership” by taking a careful look at leadership development
within the Canadian public service. The author
shows how attention has ostensibly been given to
the development of leaders at all levels within the Canadian
public service. The net result is that the Canadian
government has been able to design a more integrated
approach to learning development for employees across
the public sector. All of the programs described in these
pages are highly specialized development programs, but
the approach to training and development in the Canadian
public service has transitioned into a more broadly
based model. After describing this transition in detail,
the author ultimately assesses the Canadian government’s
progress towards its goal of developing the best
public sector leaders in the world. He identifies the
many successes to date, but ultimately concludes: given
the dearth of effective leaders at the senior levels of the public
service, the Canadian government would be better served
to focus on rectifying the deficiencies rather than spreading
its scarce resources too thinly trying to develop every public
servant into leaders, including those who may be more interested
in assuming a followership role.