I'm not really sold on leadership development.

I'm not really sold on leadership development. Not the concept itself, but the approach. The underlying thinking is that leadership is this agreed-upon end-result that requires a specific set of skills that can be taught in a formulaic fashion. And from my time amongst some of the best leaders in sport and business, I can say that this isn't the case.

All of these leaders had vastly different personalities. All of these leaders had vastly different "leadership styles." To be honest, I'm not even sure what these distinct styles are. But all of them had major influence on those around them.

The problem I see is that wannabe leaders tend to copy methods, not understand principles. Not only does it show a laziness of mind, but it also reveals disingenuousness. MFs just want the cool things that influence brings, they aren't really concerned with using that power for a worthy cause. Nor do they really understand why that person has influence in the first place. They want the validation first, and then maybe they can figure out the harder things later.

A common exhibition in this comes from the truth that great leaders tend to have high standards. So, the copycat just blindly 'raises their standards'. But they mess it up. They either haphazardly raise their standards in all walks of life, creating a never-ending plate-spinning affair where they are busy doing a whole lot of nothing. Or, they raise the standards for everyone around them except for themselves, leading to an erosion of respect from the people around them.

They don't understand that a great leader's high standards are generally in a few distinct areas of life. And these areas tended to be things that the leader cares deeply about. Which therefore lets you know that the leader has a high degree of self-knowledge, and then their influence comes from self-expression of that knowledge.

From what I have seen in leadership, the self-knowledge/self-expression dynamic is the key consistency across a vast range of leaders. They know and understand who they are and what they are driven by. They are incredibly honest about that, even if it's just with themselves. This congruency grants them unfiltered energy, which is then applied towards their avenue of choice. These avenues are where they tend to have exceptionally high standards. So, the standards that are impressive to others first came from a sense of knowledge. They didn't come from wanting to impress others first.

Great leaders tend to be calm under pressure. This is another place where the copycats mess it up. They see the end-product, but don't understand the underlying reason. So, they develop a bunch of different strategies to help "stay cool". But really, it's just suppression of emotion that ends up erupting under increasing amounts of pressure.

Great leaders understand that pressure affects everyone, distorting clear-thinking. They don't just keep calm for the sake of it, they simply have something strong and clear to return to when the pressure is on. What these leaders return to is vastly different, but can you guess what the consistent theme is? You guessed it, the self-knowledge that we talked about earlier. They live so strongly by a certain ethos, or principle, or way of being, or mantra, or whatever, that it serves as a pillar of certainty in uncertain times. This doesn't mean they are always right, or succeed every time. Far from it. But they have the conviction to stand by this principle, and are willing to be wrong by it. They aren't swayed by the illusion of the omniscient figure. They know that as human beings, we can never be objectively right all of the time. So they are liberated from the fear that holds so many others back. It's this same fear that causes most to bend and buckle in their beliefs. And it's this same lack of conviction that ensures they never have true influence on the people around them.

So yes, I'm skeptical of leadership development. Not necessarily because leadership can't be developed, but because it can't be given to you. It comes from knowing yourself well enough to stop performing and start expressing.