Hi everybody, this is Mondays with Mike, a weekly video series where I answer questions from people just like you.
Are leaders born or do people learn to be leaders?
People learn to be leaders. Here’s what happens.
There’s a book out there called “What You Can Change and What You Can’t” by Dr. Martin Seligman, it’s a great book I encourage you to pick it up. He really goes down into the psychological, physical, those kinds of things. Like there are some of us who are more extroverted, some are more introverted, that might give us more of a propensity to want to step out as a leader. But there is very little, in fact, I’ve never read research where there was a category of “this is the perfect leader.” But there are categories of traits that great leaders happen to possess – but those generally aren’t personality.
So yeah, you can learn to be a leader! I think it’s easier for some people, there are some people who just naturally step out. But if you wanted to learn to be a good leader and you committed yourself to the training and development (by the way there’s probably more written on how to be a good leader now than any other topic…) there is no excuse not to be a great leader. There are all kinds of experts out there who can help you get to that space.
You have to get serious about it, just like getting a degree. Get the right traits, develop the right habits, practice them consistently, be willing to fall down and fail, and you’ll be good at it.
Take care.
Do you have a burning question for Mike to answer on another episode of Mondays with Mike? Submit the form below!
