Are Leaders Born or Trained?

Are Leader's Born or Trained?

 

“Good Leaders develop other good Leaders.”

Melinda Reihberg

 

 

Businesses can thrive under great leadership. Melinda Reihberg, Director and Lead Trainer at All Trained Up, with 20 years’ experience as a Trainer/Facilitator in the corporate sector, has joined us today to share her thoughts on how it is done.

 

Melinda didn’t begin her career in corporate training, in fact she was a Travel Agent when she had her first taste of leadership. As a young, successful professional it was a natural progression that she evolved to management level. She presumed she would continue to enjoy the success she had so far experienced in the workplace.

 

This was where Melinda was horribly wrong.

 

Melinda soon realised she wasn’t equipped and didn’t possess the skill set needed to successfully embrace the leadership role, so she enrolled in a Business Degree majoring in leadership. Her drive to set up her own business came from understanding that people feel like a failure when they don’t naturally fit into a leadership role.

 

With clients in the retail, travel, financial and automotive sectors, both nationally and internationally, Melinda is regularly exposed to professionals who find themselves overwhelmed in leadership positions. She is fired up and dedicated to help people understand that “it’s ok if leadership skills don’t come naturally, you can learn them.”

 

Related Post: Lessons for Emerging Leaders – Part 2

 

Melinda understands an effective leader has a clear and exciting vision of where they are heading. The team buy into this vision and can see their role in the journey. To stand themselves in good stead, to becoming an effective leader, there are certain behaviours, also referred to as skills, which need to be mastered.

  1. Lead by example
  2. Effective communication and listening skills
  3. The art of delegation

 

Regular listeners to The Culture of Leadership Podcast will be beginning to recognise some of these as recurring key skills as reinforced by Laura Prael in Episode 2, Martin West in Episode 4 and more recently Scotty Schindler in Episode 5.

 

Today Melinda unpacks exactly why these three key points are essential qualities for a people-focused leader, as well as identifying how they differentiate from those who are considered a manager.

 

Training leaders doesn’t come without its challenges. Those working in the corporate sector have seen examples where a company finds itself under pressure and training programs are often the first to go. At All Trained Up it is understood, however, that effective leadership training and support will result in a happier, more engaged team who are confident with their skills and ability to do their job. This in turn results in increased customer satisfaction and the company will reap the benefits within their bottom line.

 

A progressive and successful business routinely asks, “what else can we do?” and “how can we do this differently?”

 

During this week’s conversation, Melinda also touches on the common situation where individuals do not want to be involved in training sessions. She uses the “Olympic athlete analogy’ for those who don’t see the value or, they are of the mindset that they already have years of experience and therefore don’t need further training.

 

Click here to join our conversation and decide for yourself whether leaders are born or trained…

 

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