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Peter Drucker wrote: "Leadership is something that must be learned." So when I say accountants make horrible business leaders, please know that it is primarily their choice--they could be great business leaders if they wanted to put in the work and discipline themselves to develop the key leadership skills. There are basically five areas of learned leadership that I'm going to discuss, each of them critical to being a great business leader. Before I start, I need to share a couple of qualifying disclaimers. First, many accountants are actually great leaders in other areas of their lives, but fail to be successful leaders in business which is one of the major angles of this article. Second, please put aside your preconceived ideas of what a great leader is. People of all genders, creeds, religions, political parties, and more can be and are great business leaders, and it often isn't the smartest person in the room or someone that has one or two very visible perceived leadership attributes. In describing the varieties of effective leadership, Neal A. Maxwell said: "Trying to describe leadership is like having several viewers trying to compare what they see in a kaleidoscope when the mere act of passing the kaleidoscope shakes up the design." Leadership Skill 1 - Service "Life is like a game of tennis--those who serve well seldom lose" (C.S. Lewis). Comparing leadership to life, the same holds true--those who serve others well are very effective leaders. But many accountants fail to apply this principle outside of their department and function. They get along well with their like-minded peers, but they clash with the marketing, sales, and operations departments regularly. Accounting and finance exist to serve the rest of the organization, but all too often they forget that and become too self-interested. In his book The World's Most Powerful Leadership Principle, James C. Hunter powerfully teaches the principles associated with servant leadership. The core of his message is that the leader exists to serve those he or she leads. And many accountants fail to take this attitude towards others around them, especially if they don't understand debits and credits and can't reconcile retained earnings to the prior year equity transactions. If you are feeling a little guilty about this, that's okay. This is fixable, and it's about changing your perspective on everyone around you and what you are trying to help them accomplish (notice you've got to put your self-interest aside). It will take work and great discipline, but it can be done. Leadership Skill 2 - Vision In the same book, Mr. Hunter says that the first job of a leader is to set the vision, or course of direction, for the organization. Then the second and all-consuming job of the leader is to serve.