让你做一个出色的领导者

很多研究领导力问题的学者和管理者往往都过份沉湎于一个毫无意义的问题：领导者究竟是天生的，还是后天磨练出来的？

答案是这个问题其实毫不相干。

事实是，你并不知道自己与生俱来的才能，直到你非常努力地尝试把它们表现出来。

志向远大的管理者总是希望评估自己或者其他人的潜能到底有多大，他们倒是应该这样问：他们希望走到多高的领导位置？他们愿意投入必要的精力、做出必要的牺牲，承担那个职位所赋予的责任吗？

以下是管理者在评估自己领导潜力的时候必须自省的三个问题。

你希望自己走得多远？

你愿意投入什么？

你将如何坚持下去？

How far do you want to go?

To reach higher office and to fulfill its obligations, you must continuously make choices that will affect other people's money and lives. And you will be doing this in a context where other people will want your position or will be competing with you for the next higher position.

It is easy to criticize the competence of those with greater responsibilities than ourselves, and even easier to fantasize about how we would do the job better.

A useful exercise: Look at your immediate boss's job and ask yourself if you could do it as well, or better -- honestly. Then, stretch even further and consider the most senior leader in your line of sight -- perhaps the chief executive. Learn about what that person must deal with. Get a feel for the time, energy and capabilities required to do those jobs. What would those jobs require you to do that you can't do now, or that you don't enjoy doing? What do you enjoy now, but would have to give up?

We see too many executives who set themselves up to fail because they don't realistically assess the role they are pursuing in comparison to their true capabilities.

What are you willing to invest?

Admitting to yourself what your limitations are can be difficult. But if you want to lead, you face tough choices about how much effort you must put in and in which areas you need to grow.

Leadership certainly requires business smarts, technical capabilities and cultural sensibilities, but above all, it is about power. While this point is upsetting to some people, the brutal reality is that whatever else a leader must do, a leader must gain, exercise and retain power. We meet too many 'high potentials' who aspire to high leadership but are used to receiving rewards for being bright and creative. This breeds a sense of entitlement that is incompatible with the necessity to fight for leadership power.

While it has bad connotations for some people, the appetite for power is a necessary condition for reaching posts of high responsibility.

There will be pleasures that you must give up. Certainly, there will be implications for your personal life -- raising questions not so much about balancing work and family in the short term, but about finding a sustainable mix for the long term.

Ability to lead is also about overcoming old beliefs that limit one's capacity to see in a new way and adopt new behaviors. As a leader you must take people where they have never been before -- in thought and action -- often against their initial preferences. Personal obstacles must be overcome as well.