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I see three types of leaders in the workplace:

1. The “born” leaders. These people seem to have an intuition about how to say the right thing, be in the right place, and speak to the right person. Either you have this gift or you don’t. If you do, it is likely your success has led to blind spots, because you are succeeding! Why change a winning formula? Especially if you don’t understand why you are winning. This is a subtle case of superstition. Some of these people can be obnoxious and arrogant, a misuse of their self-confidence. If they are not careful, they become one trick ponies and “has beens.”
2. The “trained” leaders. Such people have a deep inner desire and they are ready to work hard to overcome obstacles to fulfill them. They don’t let their limitations or clumsiness or frustrations get in the way. They chip away and know success lies in being a tortoise, not the hare. Success comes slowly to such people, but they often have a reputation of being rock solid and dependable. Such people need to crank up their confidence and step up to grab the credit due to them. Acceleration of their success lies entirely in their hands.
3. The “hopeless” leaders. These are the introverts who are the black holes in the workplace. They spend more time thinking about and defending their dysfunctional behavior (sullen, martyrdom, gloomy, “woe is me,” defensive, entitled) than in channeling their talents to accomplish a task or achieve success. These are the “wanna be’s” in the workplace. I’ve found trying to convert these people or training them is a waste of time. They deserve the menials tasks that no one else will do and to be treated as a service provider, not a partner. They will drain your energies and shake your faith in the inherent good you believe all humans have. They drift from job to job, until they find a permanent place to be miserable.

If you are a “born” leader, try to learn something new every day. Your knowledge is going to get obsolete very quickly and you will become an overhead or millstone around the organization’s neck at some point. If you are not a “born” leader, roll up your sleeves and get to work. Stay out of the “hopeless” category. Everyone goes into exile (layoff, demoted, passed over for promotion) at some point in their career, sometimes multiple times. That is no excuse for becoming “hopeless.”