Simon also explains the ultimate conundrum of leadership where most leaders acquire their position by being very technically excellent at the tasks of their job. 

The nurse who is the most effective at her responsibilities and who has invested years of time and effort into perfecting her skills will become the clear choice to be promoted. 

Instead of being responsible for the job, she’s now responsible for the people who are responsible for the job.

But, being great as a practitioner requires completely different skills than being great as a leader. 

However, Simon emphasizes that leadership is indeed another skill that can be learned.

Leadership is a practicable, learnable skill that can be trained and improved, like muscles to be developed. 

“Like parenting, everyone has the capacity to be a parent, doesn’t mean every body wants to be a parent, and doesn’t mean everybody should be a parent. 

Leadership is the same. We all have the capacity to be a leader. Doesn’t mean everybody should be a leader, and it doesn’t mean that everyone wants to be a leader.

And the reason is, because it comes at great personal sacrifice. 

Remember, you’re not in charge, you’re responsible for people in your charge.”

• When everything goes right, you have to give away the credit, and when everything goes wrong, you have to take all of the responsibility
• Staying late to show somebody what to do
• When something does actually break, when something goes wrong, instead of yelling and screaming  and taking over, you say “try again”
• When the overwhelming pressures are not on them, they’re on us