The Leadership Factor-X: Can it be taught?
Guest post: Alanna Irving--
“What is it that makes you a leader? Why is it you who often takes the lead?”
This question was posed to us, a group of relatively young people at different points in our professional journeys, by our facilitator, Suze Wilson, at the Asia New Zealand Foundation’s Rethinking Leadership hui.
Suze, an expert in leadership, had just finished talking about how hard that word is to define. It can mean anything and nothing, is often mistakenly confused with other concepts like “authority” or “management”, and is prone to become a “receptacle for fantasy”.
She shared definitions from the research, like “leadership is about making something happen that otherwise wouldn’t”, and “leadership is when someone succeeds in framing and defining the reality of others”. But there was no one answer.
Around the room, eyebrows furrowed. How could we answer, when the concept itself is so slippery? And yet, each of us felt we knew it deeply, on some level, because it had defined us. Ideas began to tumble out.
“I’m happy to let others pick up the ball and run with it, but so often no one does. So I do.”
“Once I see a way things could be better or a solution to a problem, I can’t leave it alone.”
“I have an overdeveloped sense of responsibility, even when it would be easier to walk away.”
“I’m just impatient. Usually things get done faster when I start coordinating everyone. I’ve been like this since I was a child.”
That last one was me.
Questions about the nature of leadership have been bothering me for years. I’ve wrestled with various aspects in my writing, with my colleagues, and even in counselling. But I never felt like I got the bottom of it.
Any time human groups work together, the dynamic emerges: someone points the way, frames the question, or suggests the plan. Sometimes the role trades off or shifts, and it looks different in different contexts and cultures, but it’s always a factor.
Often, it’s the same people who do it repeatedly, while others do not. It’s not always the person with the top job title, or the one who’s “supposed” to be in charge. It’s not just the smartest person, or the one with the best ideas, or the most charisma. There’s something else going on.
A lot of times leadership isn’t fun. It can take a lot out of you. It doesn’t always align with status or power, which many people don’t actually desire anyway. Leadership can trigger pushback or attract blame. It’s often easier not to be the goose at the tip of the flying V.
So why do it? Is it even a choice? Can it be learned, or taught? Well, there was an expert right there in front of the room, so this was my chance to find out. I asked: “So what is that leadership x-factor that seems so hard to define?”
To my surprise, she had an answer right away, and it was refreshingly clear and concrete. Turns out that when you spend years engaging deeply with research on leadership, and practice it over a long career, you do get closer to the bottom of it.
The Leadership X-Factor, Defined
About 30% is due to traits you're born with:
Intelligence
Conscientiousness (sense of responsibility)
Being verbally outgoing
Capacity to learn (especially new behaviours)
Being the oldest child (practice caring for others and taking charge)
Self-awareness and capacity for reflection
Another portion is developed through life experience:
Diversity (of experiences)
Adversity (overcoming, being stretched, resilience)
Variety (working with different people and contexts)
Intensity (high stakes situations)
And the rest comes down to:
Luck: whether you are presented with opportunities
Choices: whether you say yes to opportunities
Environment: whether your strengths are valued by those around you
Many of us around the room that day saw ourselves in this list, and felt understood. I was quite glad to learn that while some leadership qualities are inborn, many can be learned and developed.
If you’re looking to grow as a leader, consider these questions:
Of the inborn leadership traits, which do you feel you have? How might you better nurture and appreciate them?
How might you experience more diversity, adversity, variety, and intensity in your life, to stretch your abilities?
Are you putting yourself in situations where leadership opportunities are likely, and saying yes when they arise? Are you in the right environment for your strengths?