How can you identify leadership myths and misconceptions?

I couldn’t agree more with this. You don’t just come out of your mothers womb with fantastic leadership skills! All of the skills, abilities and attitudes of a leader can be learned. They can be moulded as a child if you have responsibilities like playing sport, an instrument, or if you are part of various groups. And you can improve your leadership skills at any point in time, just decide!

Everyone can be a leader if they have the motivation and desire. Having the mindset of inspiring others through authenticity and empowerment can enable anyone to become an effective leader.

I believe that identifying leadership myths and misconceptions begins with challenging the notion that leaders are born and not made. From my experience, research supports the idea that leadership is a learnable skill, and one's potential can be developed through various means like feedback, coaching, and self-reflection. It's important to recognize that effective leadership is context-dependent, and individuals should continually strive to improve and adapt their leadership styles to meet diverse challenges and expectations.

In my profession, safety managers are often times seen as the site encyclopedia or guru. Although we would like to count ourselves among the intelligent and we serve as valuable resources we do not always have the answer. This misconception that we are "know-it-alls" has definitely caused some undo hardship in relationship building. We are change agents and should be able to handle any situation and still drive the organization to a positive or desirable state. Employees or those in our care should be communicated with to the point that they understand that people with titles do not know all the answers but are also to be seen as partners so those answers can be found together. Ask the right questions to the right people to achieve results.

From my perspective, identifying leadership myths and misconceptions involves debunking the belief that leaders must possess all the answers. From my experience, true leadership lies in empowering others, fostering a culture of collaboration, and valuing diverse perspectives. Leaders thrive by admitting their limitations, learning from setbacks, and seeking input from their teams to collectively find the best solutions.

Leaders do need to learn how to use their language to inspire, connect and engage others though and this is a skill that can be learnt. There is a principle I like - Leadership is poetry and management is prose. Leaders need to have enough curiosity to find which language works in their organisation to lift others as to be oblivious to this means they may cause disengagement or worse, with their communication.

Many great leaders can be described as defensive pessimists. These individuals utilize defensive pessimism to channel their anxiety and transform it into motivation. They are not charismatic or excessively confident. Instead, they fret about potential failures. However, rather than allowing this fear to immobilize them, they employ it as a driving force. They prepare thoroughly and work diligently in order to be adequately prepared for any risky undertaking they encounter. Their ability to rally their team stems not from their charisma, but rather from their competence and a well-defined plan.

Leaders are extroverts: This is a myth. I find introverts make good leaders as they can channel their focus & energy in driving a team translating into solutions. The skills like public speaking, networking, etc that are often associated with extroverts can be learnt and mastered.