Leadership Systems

By Donna Butchko

Have you ever heard someone say, “Great leaders are born, not made” and wondered if it’s true?  The answer is both yes and no.  The truly great leaders, such as Winston Churchill, have a rare combination of learned skills, inherent natural talent, and are in the right place at the right time – during circumstances that allow them to shine. 

Circumstances are somewhat out of your control.  New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was regarded as a great leader after 9/11, but was not so well regarded prior to that unique moment in time.  The same is also true of Churchill; he demonstrated great leadership in the face of Hitler, but was somewhat less well thought of before or after the war.  You may find yourself in a circumstance where your leadership skills are really tested, and in these challenging times everyone can benefit from some good leadership skills, but you usually can’t take the credit (or the blame, fortunately) for creating these circumstances to suit your leadership.

So if you cannot control the circumstances, what about the other two – talent and skills?  Leadership is like an artistic endeavor.  To be truly great it takes a combination of talent and skill.  We know that every child that takes piano or ballet lessons may not grow up to be a performer, nor that every child that plays Pop Warner football will end up in the NFL.  The lessons and coaching that they receive will help them to develop the skills necessary for that career, and though some of those skills will be helpful to them in any undertaking, if they don’t also have some innate talent they will not make it to the next level.

The same analogy holds for leadership.  With good training and coaching you can develop skills that will enable you to achieve a certain level of proficiency.   Even if you don’t have the talent that can make you a business legend, you can still learn to be effective in your circumstances.  We can all learn to do the things that good leaders do, even if we do not have that magic touch of doing the unexpected, perfect, apparently-prescient thing at just exactly the right moment.  You can still do the smart, helpful, creative thing when it is needed.

The value of getting good training and coaching is clear.  Through that you can develop good leadership skills and become an effective leader, even if you might never be peers with Bill Gates or Jack Welch.  Since frequently great leadership shows best during times of great adversity, it might not even be something that you want.