Genius and Leadership

Reading "Leaders" by Stanly McChrystal, Jeff Eggers and Jason Mangone, which compares some of the great men and women in history and their leadership style.

"Each of us has varying abilities that can into competencies, but a quantum leap above lies the qualitatively different category of genius. Beyond a useful gift, or natural cleverness, are abilities of stunning skill that separate a genius from the rest of us. In their particular field, whether narrow or broad, geniuses do what most of us cannot.

But does that make them leaders?"

They then go on to compare Albert Einstein and Leonard Bernstein, to see if there genius translates into leadership.

It's a great question to ask yourself as a coach. Are you conflating genius and leadership? More often than not we ask our best players to also be our leaders, even though they might not possess the skills or mentality to do so.

Just because they have some level of genius, and we are drawn to their talent, doesn't make them great leaders. Make sure the people you rely on for your leadership are your best leaders, not just your best players.