Some one once asked me a question, “what is the difference between leadership skill and leadership potential?” I thought for a moment and said, “Skill is acquired and potential is inherent (not inherited). And further, Skill is an external reality. It is a response to a stimuli. On the other hand, potential is an internal reality, it is what is within a person”.
I continued, ‘that is why we say that a person has it in him or her to make it, even if he or she does not show it”
It is so with a person’s ability to lead.
Leadership is, first and foremost, an inherent reality, while at the same time, a skill, to be acquired from outside.
That is why, today we say, no one is born a leader. Leaders are made. One has to have the potential within to lead first, and there-again, develop the skill to exercise it. One learns to be a leader finally.
Let me come to the point straight. Lots of people mix up between efficiency and effectiveness. These are two different realities. It is important for one to go through Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People to understand the difference here.
Efficiency is more the potential, it is an inherent reality. Efficiency alone does not simply make a leader to be successful. A leader must be effective in turn, which is the impact a person creates in the society or in the place of work- i.e. RESULTS OR OUTCOME.
It goes without saying that “Without leadership ability, a person’s impact is only a fraction of what it could be with good leadership” as stated by John C. Maxwell. “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”. If some one does not have the potential, that person simply cannot make it, no matter how much he/she tries.
However, on the other hand, it is vital to be an effective leader in today’s world, as the world today measures a leader by the impact created.
This comes from the following
- Leader’s ability to direct (vision, mission and tasks)
- Leader’s ability to problem solve (issues that detrimental to growth of all kinds)
- Leader’s ability to develop people
- Leader’s ability to delegate and get the task done
- Leader’s ability to achieve – namely bring results
On the whole, effectiveness of a leader is measured by not how hard a leader tires, but how a leader plans and priorities the tasks and builds a capability to yield results.
Q&A
- Assess some of your leadership results
- Are you a collaborative person?
- Do you take ownership in what you do?
- Do you carry the people along with you in the organisation/compan