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In this 'jet age' where taking two steps at a time to get to the next level is the measure of success, this article seems like my mom's stern voice telling me "there are no shortcuts to success". Jokes apart, I do believe that there is something to it.
“Leaders are mostly made, not born.They are made by being put into challenging jobs that require them to earn followers in order to perform. Leadership is a performing art, just like diving or singing, and the instrument is you. It takes lots of practice and it takes considerable self-knowledge and self-management.”

The long and short of it is "experience". The much hated word. The word I despised when I was a young twenty something full of vim and vigor, ready to melt mountains. I think I had it in me to do it then. The operative word being 'me'. There is a world of difference between doing something yourself and teaching and motivating and inspiring a team of people to buy into your vision and do it. And that, as cliched as it sounds, needs one to slow down, reflect, learn, and grow, and become a leader.

The image that comes to mind when one thinks of a leader is a swashbuckling knight, up on a white horse --charismatic, larger than life, with impossible to emulate qualities. Real leaders who have inspired me to put in impossible hours and do crazy amounts of work have been much different. "these leaders were individuals who blend 'extreme personal humility with intense professional will.' Although fearless, they were also modest and shy, motivating others with inspired standards rather than inspiring charisma. "

It is sometimes a jolt to the system, when you really get it, because with the getting of it comes the realization that there is so much more that you need to get. With every mountain you cross the series of mountains ahead of you becomes clearer and slowly the brain understands and accepts that it is about how you cross the mountains and not how fast you cross them. Or maybe it is just what I have learnt and there are others who have found their pot of gold at the end of the mountain by jumping three levels ( or was it the end of the rainbow). And maybe, all of us have our own journey and getting it is about the currency that we value.

Read the entire article here: http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/lead_responsibilities.shtml