my fundamental concerns: how people learn, how they learn
to lead, and how organizations help or hinder the process—
or, to put it succinctly, how people become leaders.
We like to think that if someone has the right stuff, he or she
will naturally rise to the top, in the way that cream rises to the
top of the milk bottle—or used to when we had milk bottles,
and before we removed the cream. But it isn’t true. The late
Stella Adler, once a famous actress and later a famous acting
teacher, refused to discuss her former students who had be-
come stars. She said that she had so many equally talented stu-
dents who didn’t become stars for one reason or another,
whether lack of motivation or bad luck, and she didn’t want to
risk hurting them by her comments. In the same way that act-
ing talent doesn’t guarantee stardom, the capacity for leader-
ship doesn’t guarantee that one will run a corporation or a
government. In fact, in the current win-or-die context, people
of extraordinary promise often have more difficulty fulfilling
their promise than people of more docile character, because, at
least in our time, genuine achievement can be less valued than
simplistic success, and those who are skilled at achieving
prominence are not necessarily those who are ready to lead
once they arrive.
Although I have said that everyone has the capacity for lead-
ership, I do not believe that everyone will become a leader, es-
pecially in the confusing and often antagonistic context in
which we now live. Too many people are mere products of
their context, lacking the will to change, to develop their po-
tential. I also believe, however, that everyone, of whatever age
and circumstance, is capable of self-transformation. Becoming
the kind of person who is a leader is the ultimate act of free
will, and if you have the will, this is the way.On Becoming a Leaderxxxvi0465014088_fm.qxd:0738208175_fm.qxd 12/2/08 2:52 PM Page xxxvi