Is leadership innate? No. And here's why that matters.

I see this all the time: people who don’t recognize themselves in the classic image of the charismatic, authoritarian leader and conclude from that that leadership isn’t for them. That’s a missed opportunity. And it’s simply not true.

A Long Road from the “Great Man” to Shared Leadership

The idea that leaders are born is persistent, and that’s not surprising. It’s deeply rooted in how we’ve thought about leadership for years.

• 19th century: People studied the “great leaders” and tried to catalog their innate traits, searching for the secret formula. Leadership was something you either had or didn’t have.

• After World War II: With the rise of large industrial organizations, the focus shifted to behavior. And behavior can be learned. This led to the emergence of the first business schools.

• From the 1980s onward: top-down leadership became increasingly ineffective in a rapidly changing world. Leaders had to be able to engage people in change, and charismatic leadership emerged.

• Today: our challenges—from climate change to digital transformation and geopolitical instability—are complex and interdependent. No single person can solve them alone, and so we’re seeing the rise of shared leadership: leadership distributed across people and roles.

The biggest misconception I still encounter is that a leader must be either authoritarian or charismatic. Both of these images belong to a different era. Today, leadership is about behaving authentically. Anyone can take on this role, and the context determines how.

The Iceberg of Leadership

When organizations come to me for leadership development, their questions almost always focus on the visible surface level: giving feedback, coaching, delegating, and strategic thinking. Those skills are important, but they’re just the beginning. Beneath them lie two layers that are at least as crucial:

Your leadership identity. Do you see yourself as a leader? Research shows that self-perception plays an important role in demonstrating effective leadership behavior. Those who do not see themselves as leaders are less likely to exhibit such behavior, while those who actively work on that identity develop more effective leadership behavior.

Your deeper beliefs and patterns. Values, habits, and patterns that you’ve carried with you for a long time—sometimes since childhood. They’re rarely consciously apparent, but they determine how you react under pressure, in conflict, or in times of uncertainty.

Working on this is a personal process that requires introspection, honesty, and vulnerability. Coaching can play a key role in this process.

The Chicken-or-Egg Story of Self-Confidence

One of the most common obstacles people cite: “I don’t have enough self-confidence yet to take on a leadership role.” It’s understandable, but it’s exactly the wrong starting point.

Research shows that self-confidence and leadership reinforce each other. You don’t need self-confidence first—it grows as you practice leadership. Every small step, every responsibility you take on, every difficult conversation you navigate, further builds that confidence.

Anyone who views self-confidence as a fixed trait (“you either have it or you don’t”) is trapped in a fixed mindset. In our leadership training programs, we focus on a growth mindset: abilities and self-confidence can be developed with the right approach and sufficient practice.

There is no model that provides the answer

Many participants come in expecting that by the end, they’ll know “the answer.” They’re given a model, apply it, and realize that reality is much more complex. At first, this leads to frustration. But those who persevere learn something even more valuable: dealing with uncertainty and complexity is at the heart of leadership.

Curious to see what this looks like in your organization?

I enjoy working with new managers, middle managers, and teams on precisely these areas: skills, identity, and beliefs, and the system in which they operate. Want to brainstorm? Email me at info@sarabastiaensens.be.

An earlier version of this article appeared on the website of Antwerp Management School.