Business schools have been teaching leadership lessons to future MBAs for years, but now they’re doing the same for niche groups outside the business world. We wrote about one such executive education program for school principals, at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, about two weeks ago, but there are many more. Although critics say leaders are born and not developed, those teaching these courses disagree.

“There is a way of sharpening and honing the innate talents of a leader,” says Paul Chapman, director of the Major Project Leadership Academy at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, which will soon be offering a program to improve the skills of British civil servants.

Schools have some similar methods for enhancing leadership, including self-assessment tests and self-reflection. What separates one program from another are the specific assignments the schools employ. Below is a roundup of some of the more interesting aspects of the various leadership curricula. The question remains: Do any of these activities—from the mundane to the creative—truly unleash the leader within?

Small Groups: The Saïd School plans to divide the participating civil servants into small groups to have them tackle problems they might face in their roles as project managers. For instance, they could be asked how they would reorient their team to the policies of a newly elected government, says Chapman.

Follow Up: There are two unique aspects of the leadership program being offered to government and corporate leaders by the Olin Business School at Washington University, St. Louis, and the Brookings Institution. First, those who opt to take all 22 two-day courses, which focus on such subjects as problem solving, can earn a master’s of science in leadership from the school. Second, those earning the masters must take nine months after they have finished the courses to write a paper for each that compares theory with practice and reflects on how they are incorporating their new skills at work.

All That Jazz: Dave Logan, co-author of Tribal Leadership (HarperBusiness, reprint June 2011) and a professor of management and organization at the USC Marshall School of Business, helped mold a master’s of medical management for mid-career physicians. At one session, students have dinner and return to their classroom to find a jazz band that performs poorly because its members are bad leaders. The piano player refuses to listen to his bandmates and the music sounds terrible, for example. Without a leader, there is dysfunction, which leads to class discussion.

Personal Development: In a program for soon-to-retire NFL players at Georgia Institute of Technology’s College of Management, the career services team conducts mock interviews, while others teach students about managing their diets when they are not working out as much. The goal is to prepare them for the many aspects of life off the field.

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