The 108 Skills of Natural Born Leaders

The 108 Skills of Natural Born Leaders
By Warren Blank
AMACOM, 2001, $29.95 (hardback)

Almost certainly, even an alltime- great leader like Napoleon didn’t boast all 108 of these skills (like, for instance, #76,“Share the Power,” or #57, "Know When to Hold ‘em and When to Fold ‘em").And one doubts any human being, living or dead, does or did either.

Still, it’s undoubtedly true that great leaders have many more of these traits than your average Joe or Jane. And just looking through them and reading Blank’s discussions makes for some seriously enlightening time well spent. Most include one or more real-world examples of leaders demonstrating the skill under discussion, which puts a real-world spin on the narrative.

The 108 skills are divided into three categories: Foundational, Leadership Direction and Leadership Influence. These are further subsegmented, with maybe a dozen individual skills listed under each subsegment.

Some skills seem trite or obvious (“Establish Common Ground”) but then the list is supposed to be comprehensive, not groundbreaking. Pick this book up and see how many of the skills you possess.