Recently, a friend was telling me about their struggling manager. They described tell-tale signs of poor leadership: micro-managing, failing to listen, inability to set or communicate clear expectations. As we discussed their supervisor’s leadership, they said: “Some people just don’t have it.”

 

This surprised me, and I realized they had taken a “born with it” attitude about leadership. I began to wonder: why do so many people hold this belief, despite plenty of evidence that leadership skills, like other skills, are teachable and learnable behaviors? 

 

The reason becomes clearer when exploring traditional organizational views of how to promote leaders: get good at your specific role, and then we’ll promote you to lead a team of people doing what you were good at. Everyone around expects the new leader to excel, just as they did in their previous role. But what happens more often than not? The new, ill-equipped leader falls flat on their face. They “just don’t have it.” 

 

Famed media mogul Oprah Winfrey “didn’t have it” when she was demoted from her first news anchor role. 

Illustrious inventor Thomas Edison “didn’t have it” when he was taken out of school after his schoolmaster called him “addled.”  

Civil rights leader and orator Martin Luther King, Jr. “didn’t have it” when he received a C in a public speaking class in grade school.

 

Each of these individuals lacked crucial skills that, through time, experience, and perseverance, they were able to develop and became luminaries in their respective fields. If we don’t give our team members the opportunity to learn how to be a leader, how can we reasonably expect them to lead with any success? 

 

If we don’t prepare our employees for leadership roles by teaching them skills–like self-awareness, giving effective feedback, delegation, empathy, emotional intelligence, team-building and collaboration–we cannot and should not expect them to “have it.” A vital role of any leader is to help make more leaders. This means giving your team opportunities to learn and practice leadership. It means coaching them so they can reflect on their experiences and continue to grow and improve. 

 

Our job is to help team members get it, so they can “have it.” 

 

Can you imagine taking a successful engineer and promoting them to lead a marketing team? Or how about an exceptional digital artist to lead a team of scientists in a research lab? Do this enough and you might get lucky, but odds are you’ve put someone in a role where they “just don’t have it.” This is what we do when we promote successful front line workers to leadership positions. Being a leader is a different job requiring different skills. Sure, much of what made them successful (product knowledge, expertise, problem solving skills, etc.) will apply, but the numerous leadership competencies necessary to successfully lead a team must be developed. 

We have to give them the opportunity to get it, so they can “have it.” 

Learning opportunities are failures. Failures with feedback, reflection, and corrective action. Allowing prospective and new leaders to fail in safe and supported ways will provide chances for learning. 

 

Legendary basketball star Michael Jordan “didn’t have it” when he was cut from his high school Varsity basketball team as a sophomore. In a famous Nike ad, Jordan recounts his learning opportunities:

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

 

Jordan wasn’t born with it. He “just didn’t have it.” Yet through coaching, reflection and practice, he got better and better on the court throughout his lifetime. His success was a result of deliberate learning and persistent effort. My friend’s manager needs the same opportunities with their failures: coaching, reflection and practice. With the proper feedback loop, their leadership skills could grow and develop. 

 

The solution is simple: stop expecting your successful team members to “just have it.” If you want leaders, help them learn how to lead.