First, leadership can absolutely be taught and learned. The born leader concept is a myth. Sure we’re all born with particular strengths that might make us somewhat predisposed toward certain career paths and interests. However, even people who show early aptitude for leadership must develop the right skills and techniques to be effective.
The great Green Bay Packers coach, Vince Lombardi, said it best, “Leaders aren’t born; they are made. And they are made just like anything else through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal or any goal.” Given the desire to learn and the will to pursue your goals, leadership is a skill that most definitely can be learned.
Second, adherence to virtue is the essence of great leadership. Virtue must be taught, exercised, and reinforced in order to grow the effective leaders that society needs. Learning positive, ethical leadership is like going to the “character gym.” The more you exercise your character and stick to virtue as the bedrock of your leadership philosophy, the stronger, more effective, and successful you’ll become.
Third, organizations need to invest in leadership training. Whenever I give a keynote address or conduct a seminar, I always ask a question, “Who was handed their first supervisory position without the benefit of any leadership training prior to the assignment?” Consistently, at least half of the people in the room raise their hands.
Think about all the internal friction and loss of morale that’s generated by supervisors who are forced to learn how to lead through trial and error. Has it happened to you? Does it make sense to do this to an organization? A company’s ability to grow is constrained by its ability to grow leaders.
If you’ve just landed in a leadership assignment, you’re lucky. You now have a source of knowledge at your disposal that cracks the code on effective leadership in 4 Power Leadership: Your Pathway to Leadership Success. I wrote it for you.
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