Great topic you bring up! And I have a recent experience
Recently, I've been under the command of nothing but wankers, making the work environment very negative and toxic, and the results are never what we want. However, if those so-called leaders (wankers) fulfilled just 10% of what you say in the post, the results would be better. So you are absolutely right in what you say, and I love these posts.
Idk when I'll be in front of a team, but your posts have significantly changed my mindset regarding leadership—it’s pure gold!
A bad/ineffective team member can bring a whole team down. A bad/ineffective leader means there's no team at all. Teams/units need leadership, that's very clear, but the leader(s) need to be building the team and not dictating to it. This is the case in sport, social and professional environments.
So many people use the term born leader but it's only part of the story. No one comes out if the womb with leadership skills, they're acquired and that happens through study, experience, failure, self-reflection, honesty, humility, ownership, discipline, focus, effort, leaning into the role, selflessness and such things. Maybe a person might have tendencies/traits that help them find and do such things, but leadership isn't innate, it's learned.
So many leaders don't learn though, too selfish, egotistical, greedy and eager to self-promote instead of team-promote.
Anyway, I'm pretty passionate about it I guess and, because leadership is something I was thrust into and had to become expert in, have put a lot of effort into. Fucked it up a lot though...but learned.