SOME SAY... "I AM A BORN LEADER".... NOT LIKELY

I and others at times have given leadership talks to new Motorola Managers.  I had received some of those discussions early on myself and found them quite helpful.  In my experience and from the many new managers I have seen, good leadership is anything but a normal skill we all have at birth.  It is a logical skill that can be discussed, grown and nurtured.  But there really are very few born leaders.  There are simply many who are arrogant and think they know everything about it.  I myself began as a bad leader.  I had to learn and one day also have the necessity that my next group had to be do or die.  And I turned around greatly and "we" hit success.  Well, that beat dying.  But leadership is not a natural skill.

There are a number of leadership styles, but in truth, few of them work.  And that is just the beginning point.  Some think the answer is a "country club" style where everyone can do what they wish.  Well, soon those groups do not meet goals and there is really no feature to those folks as they lose their jobs.  The other often starting style is the other extreme and being "Autocratic".  The problem with that style is that it might work for a while, but then people do not want to work for that person, nor try any harder than they have to.  I have met several great people in my life.  One was a retired General from Desert Storm.  He was not only tough on himself as one might expect, but also pleasant, and also a great leader.  I told him that I was surprised that in the Armed Services that good leadership was also required.  But he said that it made no difference - if you were not a good leader, people would not follow you there - either.

And of course styles get more complex as experience managers need to modify their style based on the current needs.  But in general, yes we could provide a reasonable starting point for new managers to at least see some of the issues involved.

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