Can anyone be a leader? Are leaders born or made? We believe some people have a gift to lead and those who develop that gift become great leaders. We believe many people can be taught and coached to lead effectively. We also believe some people can’t lead and shouldn’t lead. But there is one other aspect we can’t overlook… some people don’t want to lead. More specifically, some in leadership positions don’t want to lead. Sounds kind of like an oxymoron. Unfortunately, there are lots of morons out there. This doesn’t mean they don’t want the position, it just means they don’t want to take the effort to lead or simply can’t lead. They are leaders in name only.
How can you tell if you are a leader in name only?
You prefer to dictate – Leadership is not synonymous with Dictatorship. Just because you can bark orders and have the position doesn’t mean you are leading. People may be following because of a fear of job loss but it has nothing to do with your leadership ability. If you aren’t spending time on the front lines with the people you lead, if you give commands from the front office refusing input from from your engaged employees, if you can’t keep an initiative or process going for more than 3 months, then you might fall into this category.
You can’t be coached – A strength is a developed talent. A strong leader continues to develop and grow as a leader until the day he dies. If you’re the proverbial “old dog” and you are who you are and you can’t be coached then you probably never were a leader and you’ll probably never be a true leader. When’s the last time you read a book on leadership or even a one page article? Do you have a coach or someone who helps you develop as a leader? Or do you think you have it all figured out? The best leaders are continuously striving to be remarkable. They’ll never “arrive”.
No one can be trusted – Superman and Wonder Woman are fictional. You can’t be that person. Leaders in name only tend to trust no one to do the job as well as they can. Because of that they tend to lose support of their most engaged people and in the end they have to do every major task themselves. Do you feel that others are out to get you? Do you constantly play the blame game? Are you finding that many of your most engaged are no longer engaged? Is your circle of close friends in leadership or senior management shrinking? Part of your job as a leader is to develop and coach other leaders. That job is impossible to do without trust.
Have you ever come across a leader in name only? Do you work for this leader? Is this leader you? Let us know how you spot a leader in name only.
There is a simple rule of thumb for telling real leaders from non-leaders. It is summed up in the following:
Little people talk about other people, average people talk about events, great people talk about ideals!