The debate in the leadership literature continues over the extent to which leadership qualities and personal characteristics that are less amenable to change (drive, perseverance, emotional resilience, etc.) can be developed. Bennis and Thomas (2002) took a developmental approach in their study of 43 leaders when they examined “why some people are able to extract wisdom from experience, however harsh, and others not” (p. 2). Their focus was less about the traits of sampled leaders than on the leaders’ transformative learning journey. They stressed “Our study confirmed our belief that traits and other individual factors are given too much prominence in studies of leadership” (p. 91). Bennis and Thomas termed those transformative learning journeys the “crucibles of leadership” (p. 87). The authors generalized respondent’s narratives about emerging stronger from an ordeal by hypothesizing the existence of an adaptive capacity in those individuals. Judicial education can provide an important opportunity for developing judges’ adaptive capacity. The opportunity for judges to engage in discussions about difficult matters, totally off the record, can build collegiality as well as strengthen judicial performance. Judicial educators and conference planners should consider this part of the central mission of judicial education.

Charles A. Ericksen, Ed.D.