Discussion

Even though you have been moderately successful, you are not "coming along” in your career as quickly as either your boss or you had hoped. Two years ago, becoming the regional sales manager looked like it was about three years away. Now it seems like it could be five years away. You frequently overhear your boss and his boss saying, "We have plenty of good managers but few real leaders.” The inference is that you and your colleagues either do not have, or have not shown, "the right stuff” of leadership. What does it mean to be a leader? Can it be learned? How might you demonstrate it for your superiors? What specific actions could you take that have been shown to help build real leadership capability?