Recent Polls
Is Leadership a skill that can be learnt?
No, you’re a born leader or you’re not. (8%)
Yes, it’s all in the teaching (15%)
A bit of both. You need to be determined to learn if it’s a skill you don’t already possess. (77%)
This Poll has now closed for voting
Comments
-
Posted by Superbantam 10:07 am 9 Jan
-
Posted by theduke 1:41 pm 19 Jan
I have just finished reading 'Blink' by Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point guy), and I wonder whether conscious leadership can be learnt in a relatively logical and ordered way; yet unsconcious and/or subconsious leadership may evade the late leadership developer. By that I mean if someone comes into leadership late (have very little original skills/mindset), can they ever react without thought in a leadership way?
-
Posted by Avgrl 9:24 pm 20 Feb
I would definitely agree that some people have a head start in leadership, I don't believe that someone is born a leader, but I believe that the messages that we receive during our youth are a strong factor in influencing someone's leadership skills, primarily due to the mindsets that are created, take for example the student who is told that "the world is their oyster" and that they "can do anything that they set their mind to" compared with the student that is told that they "will never amount to anything."
Either student may go on to be a good leader in the future, but in the case of the latter, there is the matter of first overcoming a negative mindset before focussing on the development of leadership skills.
Whilst I'm sure some people have a 'head start' in leadership, I do think that leadership can be learned, not as a series of skills but as a reflective, creative and aspirational mindset.