The term "delegators Training" was once a direct quote by an American President. Ever since then delegates have been used to describe people who exercise their rights to participate in a particular group action or project. For instance, I worked for a manufacturing company for a number of years, the President was often in charge of delegating the job of corporate vice president to a member of the company's senior staff.
I participated in a number of these activities as an individual contributor, which helped me develop my ability to successfully fulfill a role. One of the most interesting things that I did was to spend four years abroad, first in Mexico and Costa Rica, and later in Nicaragua. My experience was particularly helpful for me while I conducted a broad review of American Foreign Service (FSBO) Training. In this article, you will learn about my experiences during my time away from FSO training.
Although I had every intention of returning to a military career, after spending time in Latin America, I wasn't sure that I wanted to go back to a desk job. In fact, I wanted to be involved in a more "traditional" profession. The reason that I was interested in Latin America, was primarily because I had worked in a number of foreign countries (including two in the Caribbean) as a Peace Corps volunteer, but later as a civilian. My goal was to see if I could improve upon the skills that I had developed there.
As a Peace Corps volunteer, I had participated in numerous activities which required team work, including physical labor, manual labor and risk management. All of these activities required strong leadership skills and decision making abilities. In Latin America, however, I found that the leadership roles were frequently shared among a large number of individuals, sometimes none of them knew each other. As I observed this situation, it became apparent to me that it was not unusual for a single person to assume the role of de-facto leader. As a result, I began to understand how difficult it would be to design a curriculum for a classroom course in Latin American Studies that would create leaders - people who would then become leaders in Latin American communities and society.
This led me to the original question that led to my dissertation: How do we decide who will act as a de-facto leader and how do we determine that person's effectiveness? Because Latin American societies have traditionally been based upon family relationships, we know that individual family members play an important role in a community's social structure. Since each member of a family has different strengths and weaknesses, the situation is made even more complicated when each member of the family fulfills a role that requires unique skills and capabilities. So how do we use this knowledge to design a curriculum for delegates training that will foster leadership and decision making skills in our students?
I began by examining the historical examples that had shaped the styles of Latin American leadership. I found that some of these styles were compatible with the ways that I saw my academic career progressing. For example, many Latin American leaders I observed held office in political office for years while holding down other jobs in the community. These office holders developed the skills I described above - listening, negotiating, providing motivation, developing plans and tactics, and leading from a position of relative power. These same qualities are the ones that will serve you well as a student of Latin American Studies and as a de-facto leader in your own business.
When you are designing courses for Latin American Studies, the key to success is to choose courses that build on the strengths and weaknesses of de-facto leaders - and to work on building those strengths and weaknesses into your curriculum. Delegation may seem like blunt tools for promoting good leadership - but really they are just as important as ever. With a little careful planning and an evaluation of your course objectives, you can ensure that your course is truly an effective one.
Remember that Latin American studies courses may not be suitable for students who have little formal training in management or administration. But remember also that Latin American studies courses can be useful to those students who have worked in a variety of management and/or administration positions in their lives. A Latin American course, at the very least, may help those students to better understand their personal experiences with higher level management. If you would like to develop a course that will help students to recognize de-facto leaders, make sure you're teaching skills that are inimical to management style - but not necessarily inimical to the Latin American model itself. Delegation can be beneficial in Latin American societies - it just needs a bit of understanding to make it work.
