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3 Myths of Leadership
We all have this mental model of what we think a great leader is and the component parts that make up the kind of person people want to follow. When I think “leader” my mind instinctively thinks about strong, chisel-jawed, bold personalities unafraid to take risk, but the reality of leadership and the people who make the best leaders is much more subtle and a whole lot less glamorous. So lets take a few minutes and explore some of the myths of leadership that say to be a leader…
You must have a strong, outgoing personality.
There are really effective, really great leaders out there who thrive on social situations and love being the center of attention, who are driven towards success with a borderline obsessiveness that is reserved for the great men and women of history. But these kinds of people and personalities are only a single facet of the kaleidoscope of leaders; some of our truly great leaders have been extremely private people with little love for public appearances or even being a leader. Probably most famously, George Washington was one such person. By all accounts he was a quiet, thoughtful person who would much rather have been at home reading than leading troops into battle or becoming the first President of the United States. When you take the other two myths of leadership into account you start to realize that being a loud, boisterous…
