In response to the changes post Casey Ross commented, “I agree, Miki. I’ve cut back on the blogs I read b/c I feel like I read the same things on each one of them. Boring! I like the topics you’ve listed. Mix it up. A possible topic…are people born leaders or can people be taught to be leaders?”

Does it really matter?

People say that leaders must have charisma and that you either have it or you don’t, but I’ve known people who changed so basically that they went from none to lots, while the number of people who lost their charisma, usually through their own lousy choices, is legion.

I think anyone can learn leadership skills, but learning isn’t doing.

Paul hit it on the head yesterday when he said, “…leadership is for instances.” I’ll bet that none of the soldiers who, after their official leaders were put out of commission, led their teams to safety because someone had to do it, ever thought about it in terms of leadership, they did what had to be done, but in that moment they were leaders.

I think that leaders come from both nurture and nature. Nurture-wise, people can be raised to believe that they are leaders—of course, you can brainwash any child into believing anything with enough effort. Nature-wise, it takes a strong desire coupled with a passionate belief that one knows better than anyone else how something should be done/thought/taught/whatever.

But even with all that combined, the adjective “leader” is still one conferred by outsiders, no matter if the conferee agrees or not, desires it or not.

What I’m saying here is that so-called leadership skills are useful, if only for leading one’s self, as are most skills that help us live more personally valid lives.

I think spending one’s time and energy trying to become a leader is a waste of effort. That same time and energy would be better spent becoming the best at [you fill in the blank] and if, in the course of doing that you are termed a leader, great, but don’t make that your goal.

Look again at the best definition of leadership (my opinion) ever written:
As for the best leaders,
the people do not notice their existence.
The next best,
the people honor and praise.
The next, the people fear;
and the next, the people hate…
When the best leader’s work is done,
the people say, “We did it ourselves!”
To lead the people, walk behind them.
— Lao Tzu

Notice that it’s not what the leader thinks that matters it’s what he does, but it’s what the people involved think of that person that produces the label.

So, instead of discussing leadership to death

• do your best in every situation;
• show lots of initiative;
• do more than is required of you;
• offer (don’t force) assistance to those around you;
• be the person you would want to follow;
• learn so-called leadership skills just because you enjoy learning them; and
• remember Lao Tzu.

Doing all these may not make you a leader, but they will make you happy because you’ll feel good about yourself—what more can anyone ask?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 2:01 pm and is filed under About Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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