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Chapter 7

LEARNING LEADERSHIP SKILLS

As the noted expert on leadership John Maxwell observed, although it’s true

that some people are born with greater natural gifts than others, the ability to lead
is really a collection of skills, nearly all which can be learned and improved.
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Successful leaders are learners. Leadership experts Warren Benis and Burt
Nanus found that it is the capacity to develop and improve their skills that
distinguishes leaders from their followers. 147

As was stated earlier, developing appropriate skills can lead to developing
related competencies. However, it is a longer process to become fully
competent in some leadership characteristic as opposed to acquiring a set
of specific skills. For that reason, most leadership development programs
focus primarily on developing skills rather than on competencies.
Although these skills are certainly useful, they are not enough in
themselves to develop effective leaders. It is certainly possible to be a

skilled speaker but a poor conversationalist, for example.

Human nature seems to endow people with the ability to size up everybody
in the world but themselves. John C. Maxwell, The 5 Levels of Leadership.

The leadership potential of employees and mid-management is not likely
to be tapped, however, unless the individual is motivated to gain new
competencies and skills, which implies a willingness to pursue training.
Much of learning is about attitude. Certainly, individuals vary in their
experiences or their ability to learn. However, if someone “won’t” pursue
learning new competencies and skills, not much can be done with them,

and he or she isn’t likely to grow as a leader. An effective contemporary
leader requires a blend of qualities, competencies, and skills, and mastering
this wide range implies systematic and ongoing learning. Clearly, the skill
set of an organization is no greater than the skills of its people. Unless each
individual in the organization learns, the organization itself cannot learn.

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John C. Maxwell. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Nashville TN: Thomas Nelson, 2007. p. 25.
147
John C. Maxwell. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Nashville TN: Thomas Nelson, 2007. p. 25.
David Kolzow 125