In the 1840s Thomas Carlyle gave a series of lectures that were later published as a book. His premise was that leaders are born with innate and unteachable traits. Leadership is the purview of a few very special people.
Carlyle’s 19th century theory lives on, in debate over whether leaders are born or made.
The vast majority of research, however, indicates that leadership capability consists of learnable skills, plus the knowledge gained from dealing with increasingly difficult challenges. In short: leaders are made, Or to put it another way, people are born with the potential to learn to lead.
There’s a core set of inter- and intrapersonal skills that apply at all levels of leadership: self-awareness, communication skills, influencing, and the ability to learn through education and experience.
There’s another set of learnable skills that determine success: observation and the ability to think and act systemically.
Neither of these are super easy to measure, and thus they are not what typically gets taught in corporate learning and development courses. But they are essential skills to understand and adjust the environment in order to achieve better results.
While they may not show up in traditional management training. they are at the core of what we teach in Problem-Solving Leadership (PSL).
By Esther Derby