Pernicious myth: Leadership ability--either you have it or you don't

From PLN

by Leslie Dillon, from Leader's Digest April 2007

One of the most "pernicious myths about leadership is that the ability to lead is a mysterious, almost magical power that only a lucky few possess." In this interview, Marty Linsky, cofounder of Cambridge Leadership Associates and an adjunct lecturer at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, talks "about the error of this myth and describes steps that anyone--at any level in an organization--can take to become more effective at exercising leadership." Every essential leadership skill can be taught and learned.

The two most important leadership skills are relationship skills and the ability to let others take the reins.

Leadership also entails risk. Critical steps to becoming a better leader include:

Clarify your purpose. What are you willing to take risks on behalf of?
Practice Getting on the Balcony [stepping back and asking yourself, "What's really going on here?"]
- How are you understood by others?
- What are your predictable responses that enable others to undermine your interventions?
- What behaviors do you need to nurture to broaden your tool kit?

"With self-awareness, you can create a plan of action. You can identify what leadership skills you need to start practicing and stretching." (Marty Linsky, Christina Bielaszka-Duverna, "Conventional wisdom: 'Leadership ability--you either have it or you don't'," Harvard Management Update, Apr 1, 2007.)

Qualities of successful leaders - Notes on what makes good leaders, not just what they do but who they are.
Career paths - Things change along the way. Shorter notes on changes within your career.