Personality Enhancement Training and Born Leadership

Forceful, authoritative, but productive leadership can be honed through rigorous personality enhancement training.

“We just hit an iceberg!” “Fire!” When the alarm sounds because a ship is sinking or a building is ablaze, that’s the time for quick thinking and forceful leadership. After all, when lives are at stake, someone needs to take the helm in order to get everyone out of harm’s way. In a crisis, a clear head, steady emotions, and decisive actions save lives.

But beyond the need for crisis intervention, this kind of dictatorial leadership can be overbearing and oppressive. The goal is not to tamp down or dilute a strong leader’s greatest attributes, but rather to mold them nd make the leader more aware of his or her actions so that they can put those attributes to the best use.

Born leaders often considered themselves “bourne” leaders in that they may feel compelled to provide the kind of foundational leadership that upholds a team. They are driven to support or bear the weight of the team, to shoulder the load during a crisis, and to remain firm and strong no matter how heavy the load or grueling the pressure. They feel they must anticipate all questions, provide all answers and chart their company’s course without input from anyone else.

Too often results-driven leaders can only see the project, the obstacles, the fixes and the results. They can easily lose sight of the people and personalities who contribute to the process of achieving those results. Personality enhancement training can become a form of mindfulness training.  It can create a kind of stop-motion assessment of the leaders’ motives for pursuing goals – how they approach subordinates when introducing a new project or a different strategy, how they identify and resolve conflicts, and how they handle crises and the underlings who create the crises.

A firm hand need not be anathema to a gentle manner. Followers follow more willingly when they are inspired to be their best instead of being forced to make a leader look good. You can be direct and to-the-point while being humane and considerate of your team, steering them toward the successful achievement of a major goal in a way that is invigorating and even inspiring.

Personality enhancement training is not designed to fix something broken, but rather to build upon strengths and make them even more effective, constructive, and productive. A well-developed training program will benefit both the team leader and the team members.