Making Leaders

They say that leaders are born not made. I don't know who "they" are but I disagree and so do others including Colin Powell.

Think about the best boss you ever had. I'll bet he/she had years of experience. I'll bet he/she had plenty of stories of successes and failures that shaped managerial behavior. I'll bet he/she empowered you to make decisions, recognized your hard work, provided feedback and coaching and rewarded results. In other words, these leaders were made, not born. They had learned how to translate the vision of the organization into actionable practices. They learned how to communicate their own vision of excellence and how to model it and reinforce the behavior that supported it.

What does all this mean for the learning organization? Learning and organizational development go hand in hand. To develop future leaders, organizations utilize sound succession planning strategies and encourage development plans and professional growth. This works well for the high potential employees who have been selected as future leaders. To truly grow leadership, I would argue that you need to cast the net a bit wider.

1. Teach the fundamentals across the organization. There are a core set of communication and feedback skills that everyone should know. These skills should be used every day between managers and employees and between peers. The skills are the basis for every other leadership paradigm. For example, Situational Leadership is a very popular coaching model (you can learn more about the model at wikipedia.org or through a very well put together online course). I am a huge fan of Situational Leadership, but asking someone to diagnose and then engage in the correct leadership style is still a tough task. They can probably make the right choice but do they have the skills required to handle the conversation and respond appropriately. When everyone in the organization has the skills, they are more likely to hold everyone accountable to the behavior.

2. Continuing Leadership education. It is not enough to roll out the yearly management skills course, or hold biannual leadership conferences. These are great tools and go a long way to maintaining a consistent leadership environment. I would also add informal learning to the mix. Provide opportunities for leaders to share success and failure and learn from each other. Some of my most successful classes involved sharing the "war stories" and allowing leaders time to learn from each other. Consider creating easy to implement tools that leaders can take back to their work groups to continue leadership education on their own and gather feedback. There is plenty being written about leadership in books, articles, white papers, web seminars and other places. Create a clearinghouse through which your leaders can easily access these resources and enjoy them as needed.

3. Create a culture in which feedback is a good thing. Some people love feedback. They see it as an opportunity to improve and receive recognition for their effort. Many people fear feedback and with good reason. I've seen (and received) feedback delivered poorly and it does very little to improve performance. Teaching people how to give and receive feedback goes back to my first point. Once the foundation is in place, create opportunities for people to receive feedback on a regular basis.

4. Create vertical alignment. Leadership starts at the top of an organization. If the senior leadership isn't bought in to leadership development, no amount of training intervention is going to matter because the senior leadership doesn't recognize it or reward it. Fortunately, this isn't the case in most organizations. Keep the top of the organization in tune with the leadership training by offering them a place in the program as a speaker, facilitator, or participant. Offer them access to the same informal opportunities to leadership content.


Leadership is a hot topic these days. Plenty is being written and there is always room to improve it and drive performance. Make sure that in your organization leadership is something everyone is involved in, not just a select few.