[June 09, 2015] Those who have had the good fortune to know a great leader from the leader’s childhood are in a position to give a long-term view of leader growth. What those lucky folks tell us is that two things stand out in their relationship. First, that the person has been, through most of their life, very good with others and have possessed some rudimentary leadership traits. Second, they have developed immensely as a leader over time.
In the past I profiled Cyrus the Great and George Washington (see links here and here). One of the points made was that each was seen as someone special as a child. In the case of Cyrus the Great he always fought boys stronger than him so that he could improve on his fighting ability. George Washington was known for his honesty as a child. The lessons are that what we do during our entire lifetime counts toward our ability to be leaders and leaders do not spring out of thin air.
Most of us only think of leaders at a single point in time; usually as a senior leader because that is how we know them. We also naturally measure their effectiveness in the past against them as a leader today; a situation that is unfortunate because it assumes that leader had the same attributes then as now. In politics, for example, many will question past decisions of their political competition measured against the standards of today. We find this common and while it may be politically acceptable, it ignores the fact that leaders change over time; developing into better leaders over time.
Organizational leadership research and education programs have focused on developing individual-based knowledge, skills, and abilities associated with leadership roles of individuals.1 The focus has been on leader growth during adulthood and does not address the journey that the leader travels from childhood. The journey of leadership that helped make any leader is unsurprisingly overlooked and as such, puts us at a disadvantage if we are to better understand and follow them.
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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leader_development