Leaders are Born, not Made
If you’ve ever attended a seminar on leadership or had a high priced coach come into your organization to turn you all into “leaders”, you’ll know how unpopular the “born not made” mantra is. The unfortunate truth is that while unfavorable and not something we’d like to hear, it’s nonetheless true.
It would be ridiculous for me to suggest that a training method could take the average golfer and turn them into Tiger Woods, or take an average painter and turn them into someone skilled enough to paint the Sistine Chapel. Yet every hour of every day, workers of the world’s companies pile into training sessions promising to make them into the next Napoleon if they follow “these 5 simple rules” or this “8 step process”.
Sorry, but it doesn’t work that way. Tiger Woods is who he is for a reason. He has a tremendous natural talent that he has built upon with a good deal of practice. Without that talent, no amount of golf will make you as good as he is. Why would the art of leading be any different?
Now, this is not to say that leaders - and everyone else - should not continue to learn and develop whatever skills they possess. The point I’m making though is that frankly, not everyone has the talent to be a leader. No amount of theory, training or practice will give you the character, vision or presence to be a great leader. What often happens to those that try to become leaders without the talent to do so is that at best they become good managers, and at worst, they find themselves overwhelmed and failing dramatically, with no clear understanding of why. Failed leaders are the single biggest problem facing any organization, and they exist everywhere!
Leadership is a State of Being
Look back at what I presented as qualities essential to being a leader. Most of these qualities can be linked directly to ingrown personality traits. The ability to have a vision and intuition. The natural intelligence factor. The enjoyment of obsessing with self improvement. These are all aspects of personality and are extremely difficult to learn.
Look at the other qualities. Communication takes work and comes a lot easier to someone with a gift for articulation and listening. Courage can take a lifetime to learn and acquire. Sure you can pick these up, but you’ll never be as good as the person that has them as natural talents. You’ll never be as good a golfer as Tiger Woods, you simply don’t have the talent.
What if I’m Not a Born Leader?
Not being born with the skills to lead doesn’t mean you are destined to live forever in subservience. There are plenty of positions that require leadership skills that also allow for them to be underdeveloped. The key is to recognize where your limits are, and not allow yourself to fall victim to the peter principle by developing non-leadership aspects of your personality.
What if I Am?
Those of us with ingrained leadership qualities don’t get to rest on our talents though. Like any skill, if you don’t continually work on improvement and the pursuit of perfection you will soon find yourself wanting. Going further with the sport analogy, it’s important to remember that arguably the best basketball player ever, Micheal Jordan, spent more time with a ball than most NBA players ever did. You can only harness your potential by continually striving to improve.
Leaders are born and not made in the sense that only certain people have the potential to become great leaders by mastering the natural talents they were born with. Being born with talent doesn’t make you a leader any more than Michelangelo was born able to paint a masterpiece.
In the same light, it’s important to recognize that not everyone is a Michelangelo and not everyone can become a leader. Read on for the last article in the Leadership Primer!
