Leaders aren’t made, they’re born. You can’t learn to be a good leader, you either are or you aren’t, it’s as simple as that. At least, that’s what most people tell you, but how true is that? Are good leadership skills something that you’re born with, or can you learn them along the way?
Studies have been done into whether you are born a leader and the results seemed to be fairly clear cut at the time. Studies into famous leaders like Churchill claimed to find that their brains are wired differently to other people. The areas of their brains that dealt with decision making were larger than normal and researchers identified this as the cause of their amazing leadership skills.
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However, more recent studies have challenged those results. While they accept that your genetic makeup does have some effect on your ability to be a leader, it’s not quite as simple as that. Instead, they say that leadership is a skill, not a personality trait that you inherit.
Some people are perhaps better equipped to learn that skill, but given enough time, there’s no reason why anybody can’t learn to be a good leader. Think of it this way, everybody can learn to swim, but not everybody is going to be an Olympic swimmer.
That’s good news for you because it means that you absolutely can learn the skills to be a good business leader. Here are some of the lessons that you should try to learn early on.
Principles And Practices
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There have been many great business leaders before you and they’ve developed a series of principles and practices that business owners should use. It wouldn’t be sensible to think that you know best and ignore all of these. You can do a masters in leadership that teaches all of the leadership basics, and some more practical information that you need as a business owner. Learning from other, more experienced business leaders is the most sensible way to pick up skills.
Humility
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Nobody likes an arrogant person, especially when it’s their boss. It’s a big mistake to think that because you’re in charge you can act like you’re better than everybody else. Your employees aren’t going to respect you and if they don’t respect you, they’re not going to follow you. Be humble and treat your employees with the respect that you expect from them.
Have Boundaries
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It’s important that you don’t act like you’re above your employees, but that doesn’t you should be best friends with them. So many bosses make the mistake of thinking that they’re successful as long as everybody likes them. Even if all of your employees think you’re a great laugh, that doesn’t mean you’re running the company efficiently. You should always maintain a good working relationship with your staff and there’s nothing wrong with enjoying yourself at work, but always maintain boundaries, otherwise, staff might start taking advantage of your relaxed nature.
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It’s good news for everybody that you don’t have to be born a leader, as long as you put the effort in, you can learn it yourself.
