Page 24 - The extraordinary leader

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DEMYSTIFYING

LEADERSHIP

Leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena
on Earth.
—J. M. Burns

The aura with which we tend to surround the words leader and leadership
makes it hard to think clearly. Good sense calls for demystification.
—John Gardner

The Mystery Remains
While we were seated at a dinner table recently, it became known that we
were writing a book. A dinner guest immediately inquired, “What is the book
about?”
“It is about leadership,” one of us replied.
Without hesitation the guest inquired, “Do you really think people can be
developed into leaders? Aren’t they born that way?” (We’d like to have a dol-
lar for every time that question has been asked of us over the past decades.)
The question seems as hardy as cockroaches or crocodiles. People in general
have that query at the tops of their minds and so do a lot of CEOs and pub-
lic organization leaders.
And the question is really in two parts. If the question is answered using
the popular party line that says, “Of course you can develop leadership in

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