Busting common leadership myths, part 4: Leaders are born, not made

I want to tackle some common leadership myths, but instead of hitting you with thousands of words all at once, I’m going to tackle them one at a time.

• Part 1: You definitely don’t need this to lead
• Part 2: Extroverts only!
• Part 3: Leaders need to be the … of the team

Myth: Leaders are born, not made

This is probably one of the most common myths about leadership, and one that I used to believe; that leaders are born, not made.

The Short Answer

tldr: No, with some clarification.

The Long Answer

This is a myth that I think many people believe, and I know for sure that I did for a long time. When I was younger, I thought I had the natural skills and abilities needed to lead people. With almost no justification, I believed myself to be a “born” leader, even as a teenager. When I started working as a software developer professionaly, it was only a few years before I thought I had what it took to lead the team I was on; a team where I was the least experienced and youngest person.

In hindsight, I can see how naive that thinking was, and how it was more ego than anything else.

I held that belief for a long time, until I had a great conversation with a friend who had a military background. He said that if leaders weren’t made, then what were all the military academies and leadership schools within the military doing. Touché.

That made a lot of sense to me, and it’s when I really started to see things differently. I also had the benefit of working for a company that put a lot of energy into leadership development. I learned a lot about leadership from that job, from the training I received to the leaders, peers, and mentors I had who really helped shape me into the leader I am today.

Some clarification

I do believe that the best leaders started with some of the traits that make them better than most. They tend to self select into leadership positions because they want to do more. It’s a certain type of person who applies to the military academies. It’s a certain type of person who decides to follow the executive path at a company.

They’re not necessarily born leaders, but they’re closer than others.

Final Thoughts

While I believe many people already have some of the traits necessary to be a good leader, the best leaders I’ve known have also been through solid leadership development courses to sharpen those traits and add more capabilities to their toolkits. They also continue honing those skills, always trying to be better than they were yesterday.

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