I disagree with one person who stated that Leadership requires prior knowledge of the tasks you ask your subordinates. Actually you can have no knowledge of what your suborinates do and still lead them effectively. Many famous Leaders did not know how to do the job their employees were doing but knew the role those jobs played in the organization. This is more important I think.

As a leader you can command 20 or 30 people to do similiar tasks focused in a direction that will accomplish more than if one single person was attempting to do the same thing. A Leader is one who knows who knows which forest is the right one, Managers are the ones who pave the way through the forest, while the workers are the ones doing the actual work.

@Phil – Thanks so much phil! It means a lot to know you’ve enjoying reading this series. You and David at Slacker Manager drew me into reading blogs and many related topics for my site here so definitely appreciate your feedback on the series!

@Start Blogging – I don’t agree it is amusing (to me it is sad really) but I think I know what you mean, there are plenty of differing opinions and studies done on leadership. However, it is a very complex thing and I wouldn’t agree that there are that many differing meanings among the people who have truly experienced it and studied it for a good portion of their lives. I find there is a huge amount of consensus and consistency with a lot of bad advice and meanings scattered in place by people who have never truly put the effort in that it takes to understand what leadership really is. I am hoping my series can help open that avenue to what leadership truly is from those who are passionate enough to both study and experience it.

Thanks for writing it!

That first paragraph, what I mean is that they are not the ONLY things that make a leader, but they do tend to be some of the qualities and are shown by actions. Does that make more sense? Many people find that a few leadership characteristics are all that is needed, and that just can’t be true since there are so many different types of leaders, and they are far more complicated than a few traits.

@Viriya, leadership is all over, but most people don’t see it, recognize it, value it or practice it. It might be natural in some ways but most people do naturally follow. They follow groups, crowds, consensus by avoiding pressure, risk and challenges. Leadership is something that has to be deliberate and this is where Ross’s question is great as well.

While I think there is some point of where people will naturally be born with it or not, I think that mostly leadership must be learned and practiced deliberately to have any real influence. Natural leaders have always learned it, whether it’s late in life or from early childhood, they learned it from their social network, surroundings and even from their own personalities. That to though is learned based on surroundings and influence largely from parents so it’s mostly learned.

I am convinced that leadership can be learned and have had many successes at seeing it develop and in training it to others. Sure it comes faster for some and some seem like more natural than others, but that only comes because of years of conditioning in life, not because they were born with it or not. The Can you learn leadership? DEFINITELY! There are some natural traits that lead to the stereotypical leader but that is my point in the next article really about knowing yourself. There are leaders with all personalities and all skill sets, they lead different kinds of people in different kinds of situations so that fit needs to be there and if it is, everyone has a natural leadership fit that they can develop and learn. Make sense?

I certainly feel that there are personalities who are born leaders. Despite all the training in the world, some people will just never have that natural ability like some do.

I’m a bit late to the party, but really interested in this leadership series, Mike!