The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.
Warren Bennis, Founding chairman of The Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California
Is leadership a skill? It is a question that is worth asking as well as worth answering.
Let’s start by defining what a leader is.
According to Merriam-Webster, leadership is defined as
1: the office or position of leader
2: capacity to lead
3: the act or an instance of leading
4: leaders.
This definition is great because it hits on many key things that you need to be a leader.
First of all, to be a leader, you must have followers or people to lead.
Second of all, it hits on the question of can a person who is in a leadership position lead.
Thirdly, it highlights that there may be certain moments or instances which call on a person to be a leader.
If a leader is someone who is in a position of leadership relative to followers then do they need any skills? No, of course not. This is what many people would call bad leadership and someone that is only a leader because of their position. But someone still needs the opportunity to lead others to be considered a leader.
The capacity to lead and the act or instance of leading are the parts of the definition that are much more based on whether on not leadership is a skill.
Leadership is a skill. And like all skills, leadership can be learned.
Like all other skills, to learn a skill you must be teachable. I think that is what the definition means when it talks about capacity.
Are you overwhelmed?
Can you handle your own emotions?
Are you self-aware?
Are you prepared to handle other’s emotions?
Are you willing to do anything you ask of those who follow you?
Are you teachable?
Are you willing to admit when you’re wrong?
Do you have the time to learn a new skill?
In The Success Principles by Jack Canfield, a book I recommended in this blog post, there is a chapter titled ‘Become a Leader Worth Following,’ and he describes leaders as people who develop the skills and attitude to become a leader. He also mentions that the skills to become a leader are teachable and learnable.
Jack Canfield then lists the behaviors people need to develop to become leaders.
The behaviors he lists are:
- Self-awareness
- Holding yourself and others accountable
- Inspiring others with a clear vision
- Listening
- Creating new leaders
- Practicing gratitude
You are probably already doing more than one of these behaviors in your daily life, and you can start one of these new behaviors today.
These are also probably the behaviors prevalent in leaders you like to follow.
You can learn to become more self-aware. You can learn how to hold yourself accountable. You can learn how to hold other people accountable.
You can create a vision for the future that you believe in. You can learn how to articulate your vision. You can communicate your vision with others so that they believe in it just as much as you do.
You can become a better listener. You can listen to everybody. You can learn to ask more questions. You can learn how to empower the people around you.
You can feel grateful and you can practice gratitude daily. You can also express gratitude.
Download the free guide: 3 Ways to Feel Less Overwhelmed at Work.
You are already capable of all these behaviors, and if you are not capable yet, you can learn and develop these skills.
Some of these skills might be a case of implementing these behaviors daily and continually improving each day as you develop your capacity for them.
Is leadership a skill, or are people just born leaders?
Leadership is a skill. More specifically, leadership is a collection of both learnable and teachable skills, and you are capable of learning all the skills of leadership and becoming a leader yourself.