Most leaders are made, not born

A few people may be born leaders.  Most of us are not.  We may have leadership thrust upon us. We have to learn or be made into the leaders that others need us to be.   There are many styles of leadership, from those who command and control, to process organisers, to consultative leaders and inspirational strategists.  There are those who can exercise a variety of styles depending on situations and individuals.  Organisations may have their cultural preconceptions about preferred leadership style, but should beware their stereotypes.  Heaven help the group with only consultative leadership when there is a fire, or a wilful and disruptive staff member to be controlled.  It is now well-established fact that emotional intelligence is a greater predictor of success than IQ.

Leadership development takes time, and ongoing support.  Learning is experiential.  New situations and different people bring fresh demands.  An increasingly complex world demands ever more flexibility.  Meeting legal, manufacturing or regulatory strictures may sit alongside responsibility for compassionate care, or the requirement to motivate individual staff with special skills and expertise. Executives and leaders need mentoring and coaching, and they need it from those who are independent of the organisation and who have no personal agendas of competition or compliance.

I have a background as a corporate director, a short-term project trouble-shooter, as a leader of community groups and as a consultative leader in a large charity.  To these varied experiences I add knowledge of the developmental profile template in Spiral Dynamics Integral.  Each manager / leader must start from where they are, by knowing their own profile.   They then need to understand how to lead others, depending on the profiles they are dealing with, and the conditions affecting the group.  All of this knowledge is available and can be used to help business and organisation leaders develop their own expertise and choose their own core style.