Dear Professionals,

Answer true or false to the following questions :

1. A good leader must be a coach as well

2. The person in charge of a group must also be its leader

3. Leadership is mostly about influencing others

4. There should be only one leader in a team

5. All good leaders have a clear long term vision

6. Leaders are people who make decisions for their teams

7. Good interpersonal skills are essential for leadership

8. The best leader are also strategic thinkers.

9. A leader must be able to motivate people.

Have given your answers for all questions ? Just scroll down for answers with explanation.

Comments / criticisms are always welcome.












At one time, not so long ago, all of the above statements would be seen as true. Today, arguable that they all are false. And, if u answered 'true' to most of them, the question arise of whether u r as effective a leader as could be. Here are some arguments for seeing each of the questions as false:

1. A good leader must be a coach as well. Leadership is basically & fundamentally about showing others the direction to follow, mainly by getting somewhere something first and setting as example. Coaching is a nice skill to have but leaders don't have to have, those
who do are not necessarily good leaders. The strongest impact u can have on others is
through make them admired for what u do thereby motivating others to look up to u and want to follow your example.

2. The person in charge of a group must also be its leader. determining direction is increasingly a knowledge based skill. In any group, different people will have different knowledge. Any one of them can take lead on a topic on which they are expert. Leadership is no longer a monopoly of the person in charge.

3. Leadership is mostly about influencing others. Influencing is generally regarded as a deliberate attempt to persuade others to do something. True leadership involves setting an example that others want to follow, but leaders doesn't have to want to influence u as a primary objective. Leader's main objective is to compete, to be the best in a particular field, to get somewhere first. Influence is necessary to get support, but then we are talking about leadership and this is not, fundamentally, leadership, however useful it may be for other reasons.

4. There should be only one leader in a team. Same as number 2.

5. All good leaders have a clear long term vision. The best leaders ACT, others admire and try to employ. Some leaders do have a vision, others improvise in a more entrepreneurial fashion. Express vision enthusiastically is a good way of motivating doubters but this is motivation - it is not essentially leadership.

6. Leaders are people who make decisions for their teams. Managers make decisions - making decisions in a group is essentially an administrative task - leadership has to do with discovering or creating new directions and getting there ahead of others. Again, this statement is part of myth that leaders are and foremost, people in positions of formal authority.

7. Good interpersonal skills are essential for leadership. Interpersonal skills are important to persuade others of your point of view, but the best leaders set such a compelling example that others follow through sheer admiration even if they have terrible
interpersonal skills. The latter amounts to a useful add only and not the essence of leadership.

8. The best leader are also strategic thinkers. Same as 5 & 6.

9. A leader must be able to motivate people. Same as 1 & 3.