Abstract
In the early 1980's we set upon a quest to discover what it took to become a leader. We wanted to know the common practices of ordinary men and women when they were at their leadership best--when they were able to take people to places they had never been before. But knowing that the portrait emerging from the study of personal-best leadership experiences was only a partial picture, we also explored the expectations that the constituents have of people they would be willing to follow. Strategies, tactics, skills, and practices are empty (or worse yet, manipulative and exploitative) unless we understand the fundamental human aspirations that connect leaders and constituents.
Our analysis of thousands of cases and surveys from over a dozen years of research has revealed a consistent pattern of exemplary leadership practices and fundamental constituent expectations. What we've learned from studies specifically with college student leaders over the past five years has only strengthened our fundamental appreciation that leadership is not a mysterious, mystical or etherial concept--one that is somehow beyond the scope and imagination of the vast majority of people. Leadership is certainly not conveyed in a gene, and it's most definitely not a secret code that can't be understand by ordinary folks. Our research has shown us that leadership is an observable, learnable set of practices. Indeed, the belief that leadership can't be learned is a far more powerful deterrent to development than is the nature of the leadership process itself. In this article we discuss ten lessons we've learned from thousands of ventures about what it takes to get extraordinary things done in organizations.
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