Charles F. Kettering
Charles F. Kettering was an inventor, philanthropist, businessman, teacher and engineer. He founded DELCO and is the owner of over 180 patents. Kettering was born in Loudonville, Ohio but he spent most of his life in Dayton, Ohio. The city that I grew up in and currently reside was named after him in 1955. He is most famous for inventing the electric starter for automobiles, however, something he is not as well known for is his time as a teacher. A leadership concept I want to highlight is how he used the leadership role of coach and motivator when he was a teacher. One of these instances is highlighted in a Popular Mechanics article, one that he contributed to at one time as well:
"Kettering's approach to the derby assignment was to mount a soap box of his own rather than telling the boys how to build one. "“I believe it is of far greater benefit to a boy to use his own initiative, inventiveness and ingenuity in designing and putting together a car of his own conception than to start with a set of blueprints and specifications to be followed blindly.”" Instead, he gave advice on the process—things to consider when selecting materials, such as cost, ease of construction and performance; logical procedures for testing and making adjustments; and critical factors for success, like wheel alignment. In the end, he praised the youngsters for their ingenuity, and suggested that automobile engineers go to Akron and “pick up some pointers from the boys.”
In the DuBrin book, Leadership, the coach and motivator role is defined as being able to inspire large groups of people in the organization. There are five examples of this behavior listed in the book: informally recognizing team members' achievements, providing team members with feedback concerning ineffective performance, ensuring team members are informed of steps that can improve their performance, implementing rewards and punishments to encourage and sustain good performance, and inspiring people through such means as being charismatic, creating visions, telling interesting stories, and being highly ethical. I believe Charles Kettering exhibited each of these behaviors of being a coach and leader.
Charles Kettering could have easily given each student a blueprint to follow to make the soapbox carts for the derby. However, he wanted them to truly learn what they were building and to use their own ingenuity to promote that. He was there to help when needed but he motivated them to brainstorm and think of how they were going to design and build. One quote of Charles Ketterings that highlights his thoughts and principles is, "High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation." By making the students create their own cars, Kettering showed that he expected much out of them. The result of this was a higher achievement as their creations were all their own. I think this high expectation created the confidence and inspiration the students needed to be successful.
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References
Seehorst, M. (mar 2003). Charles Kettering. Popular Mechanics, 180(3), 44-45.
DuBrin, A. J. (2019). Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills (9th ed.). Australia: Cengage.