Do you think anyone can be a leader?
A trend I see across leadership courses and books is the assumption that anyone can become a leader if they want to be one. I concede that everyone should at least be good enough to lead their own lives. However, leading other people is a skill that perhaps some people will never master.
For the next assignment in the Write of Passage course, we were asked to write an article that challenged conventional wisdom. So I decided to take on what I consider a flawed core assumption of many leadership courses. As I wrote:
“The core flawed assumption may best be expressed with a quote from John Maxwell:
“If you want to be a leader, the good news is that you can do it. Everyone has the potential, but it isn’t accomplished overnight. It requires perseverance.” John C. Maxwell
My two questions are these: Why do we assume that everyone can be a leader? Also, why are the psychological burdens of leadership rarely discussed?”
Read the rest of the article here, and feel free to share your thoughts on the topic in the comment section.