Part Four: Are You a Natural Born Leader?

A statement I often hear is “Well, he/she is just a natural born leader”. Too often this observation is used to contrast a good leader with a poor leader and provides a convenient excuse to dismiss or excuse a poor leader (he/she is just not leadership material).

Let’s be clear – No one is a born leader. Leaders are made – not born. While some people seem to adapt to a leadership role better than others, the skills needed to become a good leader are developed – not genetic. Allow me to illustrate…

Take a pen and paper and write “LEADERSHIP QUALITIES” at the top of the page. Take a moment to paint a mental picture of someone you hold in esteem as a leader. Focus on appearance, actions, habits, and lifestyle. When your picture appears sharp and clear, list the qualities that come to mind as you ask yourself these questions:
• What specific skills and characteristics does this person possess?
• How does this person relate to others personally, professionally, and socially?
• What does this individual do that elicits respect and admiration?

Now review your list and ask yourself one more question: Was this leader born with such well-developed leadership traits?

Characteristics like being a good communicator, motivator, mentor, or coach are developed. Creating a vision and strategic plan, mobilizing teams, and generating commitment and motivation are all learned skills. While different leaders possess different skills and characteristics in different amounts, it is widely agreed and accepted that leaders are made, not born. Furthermore, leadership is more a matter of self development than external situations.

While you may find some exceptions caused by learning disabilities or other similar disadvantages, everyone has the potential to become a leader. Effective leaders develop and hone their leadership skills much like a talented athlete, musician, or an artist develops their skills.

You have the potential to become a champion leader. Visit our website at www.HollandResource.com for more leadership tips and tools.

This is #4 of a five part series. Coming up – Part Five: Activate Your Potential!

Part Three: Develop Your Personal Leadership Skills to Advance Your Career

Think for a moment about all of the situations in which you are a leader formally or informally. With your friends? clubs? organizations? children? business? You’ll probably be amazed at how many people look to you for leadership.

Often we don’t realize the importance of the leadership role we play because we confuse it with formal leadership roles (for example: the president of a company or a club president, etc). However, anywhere we have more than one person together, one will emerge the “leader” in that given situation. Depending upon the situation, the roles may switch even between the same two people. For example, let’s look at the family unit. In some situations, the woman is the leader. In other situations, the man is the leader. For years there were traditional “roles” that were considered male or female leadership roles. One of the greatest most broadening results of the seventies is that no longer is it a “typical situation.” More and more households are sharing decisions, switching roles, and being the leaders based on their personal needs and desires rather than society’s mandates.

In organizational settings, the leadership roles also switch. Depending on the issue, problem, or goal, leadership will vary based on the knowledge, interests, and needs of the individuals within the organizational structure. While it is true that everyone, many more times than we realize, practices personal leadership, it is also true that most of us have never developed our leadership abilities to their fullest. In many cases we’ve learned more of what not to do than what to do. Because of this, many times the “quality” of our leadership varies tremendously.

The degree to which you will develop your own personal leadership skills will most directly be affected by your realization of the responsibility of leadership. When we examine the responsibility of leadership, we begin to realize that we, not others, are really responsible for our lives, actions, and rewards. We also begin to realize that in many ways and many times, we have the opportunity to directly influence (good or bad) the lives of others.

Never before in our history has there been more opportunity - or more need for leadership. Every day in countless unseen cases, people are looking to you for leadership. Children, friends, peers, co-workers, customers, and many times organizations look to you for leadership. Not formal leadership necessarily. Personal leadership is leadership by example. Formal leadership is merely an outgrowth of the confident, determined, “solution-oriented” tendencies of internal personal leadership. While personal leadership requires no formal setting, formal leadership is possible only by a person who has developed personal leadership. All of these reasons, and more, convince us that each of us should work to develop our own personal leadership skills.

Right now you have already begun that process. Today you possess all the tools you will need. Goal setting can help you to sharpen your skills on how and when to use those tools, and perhaps even determine a few new ones. Leadership development is in some ways like intellectual development. The more we improve, the greater the potential for improvement. It will be governed only by the amount of action and desire we put into it.

This is #3 of a five part series. Part Four: Are You a Natural Born Leader?

For more information visit www.HollandResource.com

Part Two: Effective Leaders Must Learn to Follow

Recent research in leadership increasingly demonstrates that leadership in one situation does not guarantee leadership that is adaptable to other situations, but rather that leadership is a set of functions and behaviors which satisfy the needs of group members. It is the ability to guide, direct, and motivate individuals or groups toward the accomplishment of mutual objectives. In so doing, the behaviors utilized vary according to the personnel, environment, social, and other variables, such as the size and structure of the group and its function.

Leadership implies followership and these two roles begin to be prescribed as soon as two or more people interact to form either an informal or a formal group, and it is at this point that the situational aspects of leadership become evident. For example, a businessman may meet Monday morning with his staff for a weekly planning meeting and the following Monday make a report to his boss on the operation of the unit. That evening he may be scoutmaster for a local Boy Scout troop. Further, relationships between leader and follower, even in the same situation and involving only two people such as husband and wife or employee and employer, do not consistently take the same direction. If the husband, for example, is a chef by profession, he may assume leadership in the culinary aspects of the home, including grocery shopping. His wife may be a research scientist whose profession and employer determine where the family lives.

As you can see, depending upon the situation, we are all variously leaders and followers. In addition, there is rarely such a phenomenon as “the” leader, for roles change and most groups have many leaders. There are times when we may be a leader and a follower simultaneously. Consider the role of a teacher who directs and controls the activities of the classroom and the students. They are also directed and controlled by the department chairman or the principal. It is also evident that leadership is not confined solely to people who hold a leadership office such as president, general, coach, or chairman, for there may be others within the group who are more effective leaders.

This is part two of a five part series. Part 3: Develop Your Personal Leadership Skills to Advance Your Career.

For more information visit www.HollandResource.com

Part One: What is Leadership?

Leadership is commonly used to refer to activities such as conducting; guiding; or directing people, groups, or movements; or initiating activity. However, leadership is also used to refer to someone who is a leader in the field, a leading contender, a community leader, or leading a full life. How then can leadership be applied in so many different ways and what constitutes a leader in all of these situations? The answer is contained in the realization that perhaps the most fundamental characteristic of leadership, and therefore of leaders, is personal leadership.

What is personal leadership? It is the ability to lead — others, yourself, and the direction you want your life to take. The ability to define what you want out of life and how you’re going to get it is the first step in developing leadership. It’s only the beginning because personal leadership means “leading,” “directing,” “taking action.” It means living each day to the fullest. It means developing goals that you want so badly that you live each day with enthusiastic ardor for your goals, yourself, and all who are close to you. Knowing what you want out of life; knowing what success is to you; knowing what your goals are; and knowing that you’re going to achieve those goals regardless of what other people say, think, or do, is the essence of personal leadership.

Personal leadership also means “accountability.” It means that you have decided to use the talents that are unique to you and will develop them further to reach your goals. It means that you realize that you have the potential to develop further. It means that you have determined the course of your destiny - you are the master of your life.

You alone can define what you want your destiny to be. Once you’ve decided what you want, you must consciously and actively establish your goals to realize that destiny. When you have made this decision, you do indeed possess personal leadership. Problems become challenges, failure becomes a setback (and more importantly a learning experience), and each day of your life becomes exciting, challenging, and rewarding. Success becomes a way of living, a second nature expectation that becomes true daily as you achieve success along the way. You possess the kind of self-confidence that insures the successful outcome of any goal you set for yourself.

This is part one of a five part series. Next week: Effective Leaders Must Learn to Follow.

For more information visit www.HollandResource.com.