Are leaders born or bred? The general consensus is that leadership can be taught. While most of us have not been formally trained or mentored in leadership, we have all been called upon at one time or another to assume positions of leadership. Leadership is foremost about who you are as an individual, not what you do, and character best describes the core characteristic of a leader. Character is the sum total of an individual’s principles and values: loyalty, respect, integrity, courage, fairness, honesty, duty, honour and commitment.
While character is the sum of our principles and values, ethics is the application of those principles and values. According to Aristotle, ethics is a moral virtue attained through practice and habit. He believed that we weren’t born with moral virtues naturally, but that we become moral and virtuous by embracing moral virtues and perfecting them through application until they are habit. Leadership training stresses that understanding leadership values and attributes is but the first step in becoming an exceptional leader.
After 25 years of working with some of the most exceptional people in Business Development within the power generation industry, we have observed unique characteristics that set them at the top 3% of professionals in their field. We have found that these people excel no matter what the economic climate, the client base, the services, or organization they work for. Aside from learning how to set strategic and operational objectives in planning, aside from being visionaries who see opportunities where others do not, aside from mastering the 12 Core Competencies, they are also great leaders who have adopted the character of leaders.
Sig Nordal 