Are People Born Leaders or Do They Learn Leadership?

As a leader, do you continue to 'practice' the art of leadership? 


Leadership is not an innate trait that you're born with. It can be learned. The key is to practice before you have the official title.  In fact, even leaders in the role need to continue to practice.  Start by focusing on the choices you make now, such as who to put on your team or who needs to participate in your projects. Recognize that you likely don't know everything. Making decisions based on incomplete information is a skill that every leader must master. Once you've acted, ask yourself: Was that the right decision? Could you have done something differently? This will get you comfortable with making decisions, acting upon them, and reflecting on their outcomes. Then, learn from your inevitable mistakes. You will build knowledge and skills as you work up to the larger decisions with broader consequences that all leaders have to make.






Adapted from "Wilderness Leadership—on the Job" by John Kanengieter and Aparna Rajagopal-Durbin.

Committing to Continuous Personal Growth

As a leader, how have you committed to continuous personal growth?

Early in your career, you may ask mentors to help you with specific skills. But as you face mid-career challenges, you need mentoring that's tailored to your individual strengths and learning goals. And, you need mentors who can increase your access to leader-learning opportunities. Work with advisers who can help you take the skills you've honed in your current role and apply them to broader challenges in order to increase your effectiveness. Attract these mentors by demonstrating your experience and articulating your eagerness and commitment to continuous personal growth.



Adapted from Guide to Getting the Mentoring You Need (Harvard Business Review Press).

Leadership Presence

As a leader, how do you build your leadership 'presence'?

Simply because you hold a leadership role, it doesn't mean that you have 'leader presence'.  Leader presence is not an innate quality; it is a set of behaviors that you can learn over time. Whether you are a natural wallflower or a social butterfly, you can enhance your presence by doing the following:

• Focus and relax. Calm is the foundation of presence. Use your breathing as an anchor that you return to when you get stressed or start to lose focus.
• Gain awareness. To change your behavior, you need to know how you are perceived. Pay attention to how people react to you and ask for candid feedback from those you trust.
• Practice with support. Telling a colleague or mentor you're working on presence can boost your skills and confidence. The feedback you receive can also reinforce momentum.
• Start by buying time. One of the first behaviours to demonstrate presence is informing those who ask questions that you need some time.  Try saying this:  "This is important.  I want to give it some thought and to check with some others.  I don't want to rush my response.  I'll get back to you tomorrow."  Comments like this build your presence by indicating that you take time, you see what's important, you think things through, you reflect, you consult when necessary, and you'll respond when you are ready.  Each of these is an aspect of 'leader presence'.

Adapted from "Developing Executive Presence" by Joshua Ehrlich.

How are You Unique as a Leader?

As a leader, what is it that makes your leadership unique?

To be successful as a leader, you need to know your strengths and what special skills and qualities you bring to your role. If you can't articulate them, you can't expect others to see them either. Here's a four-step process to identifying what makes your leadership great:

• List your strengths. Include skills and knowledge you've acquired through experience and education as well as softer intrinsic strengths, such as insightfulness or empathy.
• Ask for input. Ask colleagues for honest feedback - either directly or anonymously.  Just be sure to hear from those you lead.
• Revisit past feedback. Reread old performance appraisals or think back on coaching experiences.  Have you grown in these areas?  How? 
• Modify your list. Adjust your original list to reflect what you've learned. Make sure the strengths are specific so that they are credible and useful.

Adapted from "Five Steps to Assess Your Strengths" by Bill Barnett.

Admit what you don't know

As a leader, are you able to reveal your weaknesses in order to build a stronger workplace?

Leaders who insist on making all the decisions often find themselves with disengaged employees. If people aren't taking charge in your organization, your leadership style might be the problem. If you have an overly directive approach, take a step back. Acknowledge your failings (whether they be your knowledge base or a particular skill set) with your team. Share your personal and organizational goals. Then, admit that you don't have all the answers and you need your team's help in reaching those goals. This will give your people room to actively participate in the organization's success. This act of humility is often seen as courageous and inspires others to follow suit.

You can extend this idea to actually inviting some individuals to take on certain roles.  For example, if you're bad at remembering the social aspects of the workplace, ask for a couple of volunteers to take on this responsibility.  Another example might be asking for a volunteer or two to help identify what's missing from conversations at meetings.  Certain individuals could be asked to help the group identify perspectives that may be missed when your team gets together to work.  By engaging more staff with important workplace roles, you're sharing the responsibility of leading the school/organization.  You're building capacity, and you're ensuring the workplace is a healthy environment in which to work because responsibility is shared.


Adapted from "Fire, Snowball, Mask, Movie: How Leaders Spark and Sustain Change" by Peter Fuda and Richard Badham.

What is it about your leadership?

As a leader, what is it about your leadership that makes a difference?

Each of us is an individual.  We have unique knowledge, experience, stories, and skills.  The same can be said of us as leaders.  We each lead in different ways based on our knowledge, experience,and skills.  The important question each leader needs to ask himself or herself then is: What is it about your personal leadership that makes a difference in your workplace?

This question causes you to reflect on yourself as a person and as a leader.  What is unique about you and your leadership that makes your school/organization successful?  It's more than bringing together a great team of people.  Leaders add value.  What is your value added to your school/organization?  If this isn't an easy question to answer, it probably calls for some thinking/reflecting on your part. 

Here are just a few questions that might help guide your thinking:

• What are my unique knowledge, experiences, and skills?
• How do I use these as a leader in my workplace?
• Do I make conscious decisions to enact certain leader behaviours?
• Do I rely on 'gut reaction' (unconscious decision-making) in order to lead? 
• Is my school/organization doing well, at least in part, thanks to my leadership?  How do I know?
• Could I be replaced by another person and the school/organization would do just about as well?
• What value do I add as leader? 

Drop Your Mask and Be Authentic

As a leader, are you authentic with your staff?

Are you hiding from your staff? Too many leaders try to conceal their flaws and present a polished façade - the 'bluff exterior'. Or they try to behave like they think "great" leaders do. When you try to be someone else, it erodes trust and effectiveness and causes people to question your true identity.  Your staff can see through this behaviour.  So drop the mask and be who you really are. This can enhance your relationships, foster trust, and create better outcomes at work. Be honest about your imperfections and ask others to help you determine how to bring more of your authentic self to work.  By not being 'perfect', you're able to build capacity in your organization/school by cultivating the knowledge and skills of your colleagues. 

Adapted from "Fire, Snowball, Mask, Movie: How Leaders Spark and Sustain Change" by Peter Fuda and Richard Badham.

What are you planning to learn this year?

This post is a revised version of the Dec 22/11 post - with a view to the future....

As a leader, what are you planning to learn this year?

Michael Fullan (2008) reminds us that "Learning is the work."  As leaders, we aren't effective if we aren't learning - just as we want our staff members to be learning.  So....what are you planning to learn this year?  What will be your learnings as a leader this year?  You'll likely need to take a bit of time to think about it.  You'll probably have to reflect on what you might want to change. 

In order to identify what your leader learning could be for this new year, you might want to use some of these questions to prompt your thinking:

• What went well last year?
• What didn't go so well last year?
• If I were to do something from last year over again, what might I do differently?
• What would I not change in my leader practices for this year?  Why?
• Of my leader practices, which do I feel are really solid?
• Of my leader practices, which need some attention?
• As a leader, am I accomplishing the things I want to accomplish?  If yes, why?  If no, why not?
• As a leader, what knowledge do I still wish to gain? 
• As a leader, what skills do I still wish to gain?

What did you learn this year?

As a leader, what did you learn this year?

Michael Fullan (2008) reminds us that "Learning is the work."  As leaders, we aren't effective if we aren't learning - just as we want our staff members to be learning.  So....what did you learn this year?  What were your learnings as a leader this year?  You'll likely need to take a bit of time to think about it.  You'll probably have to reflect on what went well and what didn't go so well. 

In order to identify what your leader learning was this year, you might want to use some of these questions to prompt your thinking:

• What went well this year?
• What didn't go so well this year?
• If I were to do things over again, what might I do differently?
• If I were to do things over again, what would I not change?  Why?
• Of my leader practices, which do I feel are really solid?
• Of my leader practices, which need some attention?
• As a leader, am I accomplishing the things I want to accomplish?  If yes, why?  If no, why not?
• As a leader, what knowledge do I still wish to gain? 
• As a leader, what skills do I still wish to gain?