From Leadership Traits to Habits: How Leaders Are Made, Not Born

When Satya Nadella became CEO of Microsoft in 2014, the company was seen as sluggish and siloed. Many expected sweeping strategy changes. Instead, Nadella began with something deceptively simple: behavior. He modeled empathy, encouraged curiosity, and emphasized a “growth mindset.” These leadership traits weren’t the marks of a “natural-born leader.” They were deliberate, practiced leadership habits—and they reshaped Microsoft’s entire culture in ways that reignited innovation and collaboration.

Nadella’s story captures an essential truth for leadership development professionals: leadership is not a fixed trait. It’s a set of behaviors that can be observed, measured, and refined over time. Leaders are made, not born.

Leadership Beyond the Corner Office

In today’s organizations, leadership can’t be confined to the executive suite. Distributed teams, hybrid work, and constant change require leadership at every level. Anyone who influences others—whether they manage people or not—has opportunities to lead.

This belief sits at the heart of the Leadership Effectiveness Analysis (LEA) model, which is grounded in the idea that leadership behavior is observable, measurable, and—most importantly—changeable. If leadership were purely innate, there’d be little we could do to help people grow. But because it’s behavioral, leaders have agency. They can learn, adjust, and develop new habits that make them more effective in their unique roles and as they ascend the leadership ranks.

No Single Formula

One of the guiding principles of the LEA is that there’s no single recipe for effective leadership. What works beautifully in one context may fail in another. A startup founder and a government agency director might both be great leaders, but they’ll exhibit very different patterns of behavior.

Context is everything. Leadership effectiveness depends on the organization’s culture and mission, the individual’s role, the situation they face, and their personal style and values. The same behavior that’s energizing in one environment could be disruptive in another.

For learning leaders, this principle is crucial: our programs must account for context. Leadership development can’t be one-size-fits-all—it must help people flex their behaviors depending on where and how they lead.

Behavior as the Engine of Leadership

The best leadership qualities are not personality traits; they are behaviors we can observe and practice. Traits might explain why a person acts a certain way, but behavior is what others actually experience—and what can be changed.

When development focuses on behavior, it becomes concrete and empowering. Leaders can:

Identify which behaviors they emphasize most often.
Reflect on how those behaviors are perceived by others.
Experiment with new approaches and measure their impact.

As I often tell coaching clients, it’s not about whether a score is “good” or “bad.” A high score simply means a behavior shows up more frequently, while a lower score suggests it shows up less. Both ends of the spectrum have strengths and liabilities. A leader who’s highly structured may provide clarity but risk rigidity; one who’s low on structuring might foster flexibility but struggle with consistency. The key question is always: Is it working for you in this context? This practical, nonjudgmental approach—showing leaders what they do and letting them decide what’s serving them—is what turns insight into real growth.

Case Studies in Leadership Habits

Indra Nooyi at PepsiCo: Listening as Strategy

Nooyi’s leadership habits were grounded in connection. She famously wrote letters to the parents of her senior executives, reinforcing loyalty and humanity in a global corporation. She also listened deeply to customers and stakeholders, aligning PepsiCo’s growth with healthier products and sustainability.

Alan Mulally at Ford: Transparency as Practice

When Mulally arrived at Ford in 2006, the culture was one of denial and competition. He instituted weekly Business Plan Reviews where executives could openly share progress and problems—without fear of punishment. Over time, accountability became a shared habit, and that behavioral shift helped Ford return to profitability.

Mary Barra at GM: Accountability and Inclusion

When Barra took over amid a safety scandal, she rebuilt trust through transparency and inclusion. By modeling accountability herself and encouraging employees to “speak up for safety,” she reshaped how GM approached both performance and culture.

Each of these leaders built effectiveness not through inherent leadership traits but through consistent, observable behaviors aligned with their contexts.

The Role of Leadership Assessments

For leaders to change behavior, they first need an accurate picture of how they’re experienced by others. That’s the power of behavioral assessments like the LEA 360.

The LEA measures 22 independent leadership practices—everything from structuring and delegating to empathy and persuasion—providing a detailed picture of how often a leader uses each behavior. Feedback is presented descriptively, not evaluatively, so leaders can look at themselves with objectivity rather than judgment. The conversation isn’t “good or bad.” It’s “Is this level of emphasis effective for me right now?” That simple reframe reduces defensiveness and increases the likelihood of real change. For learning and development professionals, this creates an opportunity to design coaching and training that feels personal, actionable, and sustainable.

Leadership in Context

Even the most well-intentioned behavior must be situationally effective. As I often remind practitioners, leadership exists to achieve outcomes in a particular context with a particular set of resources. It’s not for its own sake.

A leader’s effectiveness depends on their ability to read their environment and adjust accordingly. The behaviors that motivate a seasoned team may not work for a group of new hires. The communication style that builds trust in one culture might feel intrusive in another. The best leaders understand these nuances and flex accordingly.

The Bottom Line

The “born leader” myth is comforting, but it robs people of agency. Leadership is not a mysterious gift—it’s a set of learnable, measurable, and adaptable behaviors. When we help leaders understand what they do, why they do it, and how it lands with others, we give them the tools to grow. For organizations, this means leadership development isn’t a perk—it’s a strategic necessity. And for those of us in the training industry, it’s a call to action: to design learning that moves beyond theory to practice, from leadership traits to habits, from potential to performance.

Christine Chasse has been a Senior Executive Coach with MRG for over 16 years. You can find and follow Christine on LinkedIn.