Page 65 - The extraordinary leader

42 • The Extraordinary Leader

makes a huge mistake you notice it, but you are still frequently
surprised when you judge a dive as excellent and the judges mark it
down because of a fine detail that you missed.
Judging leadership is much the same way. Too many have remained
casual observers of leadership rather than becoming trained judges.
They experience leadership from others and feel the effects (that was
great leadership or that was terrible) but lack the insight of how the
effect was created or what its longer-lasting consequences will be.
People frequently confuse personality traits for leadership. They
assume that assertiveness, or the ability to make a compelling speech
or give people crisp orders, is leadership. It is not.
In order for people to improve their leadership ability, they need
to become astute observers of leadership. They not only need to
understand some basic concepts and be reasonably well read but
also need to be able to judge everyday interactions and understand
what is missing.
5. Many good leaders believe that extraordinary leaders are prodigies,
having been endowed with some unusual gifts from birth. Most
recognize that people with exceptional leadership talents exist, but it is
difficult for others to understand the path in their development that
brought them from being good leaders to being extraordinary leaders.
The bar set to achieve extraordinary leadership seems too high to
achieve, and the path to develop extensive skills is not clear. This is akin
to watching a great concert pianist and aspiring to play the same way she
does. The fantasy is fun, but given the reality of looking at what it would
take to accomplish such a feat, most don’t even start. One music student
described her experience completing her degree in music pedagogy.
She indicated that there were a few students who had exceptional
natural ability but lacked discipline. Watching the professors interact
with these students, she observed that the professors were not very
excited about working with these students with natural talent but poor
discipline. Professors chose to mentor students with strong discipline.
When asked about their choices regarding which students they chose to
mentor, one of the professors commented, “Discipline is always more
important than some natural ability. With some dedicated practice,
those with discipline will surpass those with natural ability in a few
semesters. Without discipline and the ability to learn, those with natural
ability will never progress above their current ability.”