Here's a quick review of the new book "Leadership is Innate":
Top CEOs will tell you that leadership traits come as "part of the package" and "can't really be taught". Scientists have recently begun to discover how genetic differences contribute to key leadership skills.
The basic thesis of the book is that leadership training has no effect, unless you first possess the innate (genetic) qualities of desire/motivation, charisma, energy-level, and ambition. In other words, leaders are selected for their innate potential to benefit from further leadership training and grooming, but you can't train just anyone to be a leader.
This stands in proud opposition to the feel-good-but-false assertions made by "experts" such as Warren Bennis (Leaders, 1986):
[M]ajor capacities and competencies of leadership can be learned, and we are all educable, at least if the basic desire to learn is there and we do not suffer from learning disorders. Furthermore, whatever natural endowments we bring to the role of leadership, they can be enhanced; nurture is far more important than nature in determining who becomes a successful leader.
The key word here is "desire". If you don't desire leadership, if you don't want it and crave it, if it doesn't motivate you, if it doesn't resonate with your feelings, then you can't be a leader. Desire and motivation are what's genetic!
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