Can Leadership Be Taught?

Transcript:

Hello, Sandra Pollock here,

A question that I hear frequently when running my leadership programmes is this one:

Can leadership be taught?  This is a great question.

There is a train of thought, or should a say, a theory of leadership called the ‘Great Man Theory’ devised by Thomas Carlyle, a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher, that exerts that leaders:

Are born, not made, that great leadership skills are inherent.

I am sure that there are some people who still hold to this belief.

If we look back through history, we can identify leaders who, on reflection seem to have been at the right place at the right time, with the right skills to bring about great historic and timely change.

• Leaders like Churchill for World War II;
• Mahatma Gandhi in bringing about India’s nonviolent independence.
• Nelson Mandela in bringing about the end to apartheid in South Africa
• Martin Luther King Jr in the Civil Rights Movement in America

I am sure that we can find many more.

In my view, we cannot really prove that these individuals didn’t learn to be leaders from their life experiences, observations, studies, etc.  We can only surmise, if we chose, on reflection that they were at the right place, at the right with the right skills of persuasion, fortitude, and made the right choices that proved to bring about the change required.

Who is to say that others would not have been able to achieve similar things if they had been taught?

Although I will admit that courage is one of the greatest characteristics of great leadership that came to the surface at the greatest point of challenge.

But this in itself does not prove either way that leadership skills are given to some, over others at birth.

Don’t get me wrong, I not trying to detract from their most valuable and important work and sacrifice to humanity.

We’re looking at the question can leadership be taught?

We can learn from looking at these individuals, what they did and how they worked.

I believe the answer to this question lies in our individual mindset.  Whether we believe in a growth mindset or not.  Whether we believe that people can learn or not.

From my experience, I have seen people learn the skills, behaviours and mindset necessary to become great leaders.

So, my answer to that question is yes.  Leadership skills can be learnt.

However, to be a great leader requires a huge amount of self-reflection, self-responsibility and a deep commitment to change oneself for the true benefit of others and your goals and objectives. Some might call this, self-sacrifice.

I’m Sandra Pollock and I will be back with another ‘Leadership Thought’.