I happen to believe that leadership is something that you learn. If you want to master how to be a leader, you can do it if you are willing to work. Of course you have to be given the opportunity.
I was in the Boy Scouts when I learned that if you want people to follow you, you have to be willing to do anything that you ask them to do. They goes for everything from picking up trash in a Boy Scout campsite to helping carry boxes and set up a corporate exhibit in a Fortune 500 company.
Maybe I'm crazy but I think a lot of success comes from failure or near failure and the ability to overcome it. In this respect I believe entrepreneurs and great leaders have something in common. My experience with great entrepreneurs revolves around Steve Jobs so it may or may not ring true for others.
There may be great leaders that have just been born, but I'll wager there are far more whose experiences have molded them into leaders that people respect and follow without question.
I believe great leaders develop an innate sense of where and how far they can take the people who have made the decision to follow them. There are leaders that push people too far. In effect there are good and bad leaders.
In order to be a leader you have to connect with people on multiple levels but which all boil down to trust. The only other way to be a leader is by force of your position when people have no choice but to follow your directives.
Good leaders know how to motivate people and take them to levels they never dreamed were possible. Leaders who create a legacy on the backs of others without respecting them will eventually be exposed.
You can't be a good leader if you care only for yourself. It just doesn't work. You can't fake caring for your people either. You also have to take the time to help the ones around you be more than they could be on their own.
In fact I would argue that you aren't a real leader until you have helped some others become leaders. You might get people to follow you, but if you can't help others get to the next level and perhaps even beyond yourself, then you might be a great entrepreneur but a lousy leader.
Perhaps you can see where this is going. Steve Jobs was an outstanding entrepreneur. He is, however, a lousy leader. I suspect he has created a company with absolutely no bench strength. Building a company where only one person has power to make real decisions is a quick way to create a company that won't scale. Apple's success won't run out quickly, but unless the corporate culture changes, it will run out.
As Apple's director of federal sales, I was once in a course for people who were Directors at Apple Computer. The second day into the course, one of the outside consultants who were running the course, asked why none of the people in the room seemed to feel that they had any power to make a decision. Most of the Apple people in the room just laughed. Someone took the time to explain that the only person with real power at Apple happened to be Steve.
Building a company with strong leaders creates a strong company. It's not easy but it's worth the time and effort.
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