Leadership comes from training, development and experience. Correct? If not, then you must be born with those necessary ingredients. Correct?
Frankly, I don’t think it is one or the other. It is a combination of both. I spoke at an executive development program for twenty five general officers of the U.S. Army. Leadership is of the utmost importance to them, on and off of the battlefield. We had a good discussion on what makes a great leader.
Upon reflection of that session and from my own experiences, I believe the following leadership ingredients we are partially born with and come out of our very early life experiences and intellectual makeup.
1. Given responsibility at an early age and get satisfaction from it.
2. Held accountable for results and recognized and praised for achievement.
3. Born with a passion and excitement for life.
4. Strong family home life, for support.
5. Feel good about yourself mentally.
6. Take care of yourself physically.
7. Enjoy people, being part of a team and leading.
8. Positive attitude.
9. Intuition and judgment begin to form out of these experiences.
10. Honest and integrity are a part of your fabric and makeup.
As we mature as adults, with the above foundation, successful leaders in later life are taught, learn eagerly, develop and practice the following ingredients.
1. Self discipline.
2. Learn humility, yet are ambitious and confident.
3. Desire to learn. A never ending quest for ideas and education.
4. Practice over and over.
5. Take advantage of learning from mentors and role models.
6. Pragmatic approach, realistic.
7. Learn to think strategically and tactically.
8. Develop skill sets that support leading.
9. Like a book, develop a table of contents to draw from when needed, i.e., policies, procedures, definitions.
10. Adaptable to multi-tasking, flexible to change.
If you have a view on what makes a great leader, let me know what you think by adding a comment below.
– Howard Putnam
_______________________________________________
Howard Putnam speaks on leadership, change, transformation, customer service, teams and ethics. He is the former CEO of Southwest Airlines and the first CEO to take a major airline, Braniff International, into, through and out of Chapter 11, getting it flying again in less than two years.
This article was originally included in Howard Putnam’s Leadership eSeries. You can sign up to receive his weekly thoughts on leadership by going to: http://www.howardputnam.com/eseries.asp
