100 Ways to Motivate Others

17. Get the Picture

People cannot be managed… Inventories can be managed, but people must be led.

—H. Ross Perot

Here’s a common question: Isn’t leadership something people are born with? Aren’t some people referred to as born leaders?

Yes, but it’s a myth. Leadership is a skill, like gardening or chess or playing a computer game. It can be taught and it can be learned at any age if the commitment to learn is present. Companies can turn their managers into leaders.

But if companies could transform all their managers into leaders, why wouldn’t every company just do that?

They don’t know what a leader is, most of them. They don’t read books on leadership, they don’t have leadership training seminars, and they don’t hold meetings in which leadership ...