This podcast explores the unique way the CIA develops and trains their leaders, focusing on the concept that leadership is an innate quality shaped by personal experiences. It discusses the agency's perspective on leadership, introduces the concepts of builders and runners as different types of leaders, and emphasizes the significance of recognizing and embracing one's natural leadership style. Additionally, it highlights the importance of building teams with complementary talents and embracing one's natural strengths to become a leader.
Leadership is an innate quality that everyone has, not something that needs to be developed or learned.
Leadership can be categorized into builders and runners, and teams should have a balance of both types to operate efficiently.
Deep dives
Leadership as a Natural Intrinsic Quality
Leadership is not something that needs to be developed or learned; it is an innate quality that everyone has. Just like how everyone is born with eyes, everyone is born with leadership. It is not something that can be bought or acquired through training. Leadership is already a part of who you are. It is important to understand your natural tendencies and strengths as a leader, whether you lean towards being a builder or a runner.
Builders vs. Runners: Two Types of Leadership
Leadership can be categorized into two types: builders and runners. Builders are individuals who love tackling challenges and creating new solutions. They enjoy experimenting and testing ideas. On the other hand, runners excel at maintaining and optimizing existing systems. They thrive on predictability and success. Not every runner is a builder, and not every builder is a runner. Instead of trying to make everyone a combination of both, it is more effective to build teams that have a balance of both types of leaders.
Leveraging Natural Strengths for Team Success
To achieve success in any organization, it is crucial to recognize and leverage the natural strengths of individuals. Builders should focus on creating new initiatives, products, or processes, while runners excel at executing and optimizing those initiatives. By allowing builders to build and runners to run, teams can operate efficiently and continually improve. Building off natural strengths and finding the right fit for each individual is key to becoming an effective leader and achieving productivity and success.
Elite spy agencies need leaders just like every other corporate organization. But the way they find and cultivate their leaders is very different than what you read about in leadership books and see advertised on your LinkedIn feed. In this episode, Andrew explains the simple secret to how CIA develops and trains their leaders to do what others can't and go where other's won't.
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