People often think leadership skills come naturally, but often people who consider themselves born leaders are not as effective as people who are first good followers, according to the Harvard Business Review.
In a study of 218 Australian Royal Marine recruits, Kim Peters, PhD, and Alex Haslam, PhD, tracked the self-identification results of the recruits over the course of a 32-week infantry training program that culminated in the award of the Commando Medal for leadership to one recruit, as voted by their commanders.
The researchers found recruits who considered themselves natural leaders often were not able to convince their peers of this ability, while individuals who considered themselves good followers often emerged as leaders.
"Evaluators who are situated within the group, and able to personally experience the capacity of group members to influence one another, appear to recognize the leadership of those who see themselves as followers," Dr. Peters and Dr. Haslam wrote. "In contrast, those who stand outside the group appear to be most attuned to a candidate’s correspondence to generic ideas of what a leader should look like."