What distinguishes effective leaders from mediocre ones? Is it their ability to make good decisions, their charismatic persuasiveness, or the clarity of their vision? And do the best leaders have these qualities naturally, or were they acquired at college? The good news is that you can learn to be a leader, just as long as you take time to learn fundamental leadership skills. However, your effectiveness depends on how you apply these skills. So, what do you have to learn if you want to be a better leader? And do you need to go business school to learn these things, or can...

People tend to make decisions reactively when confronted with emergency situations or when a disaster unfolds. In these circumstances, the best decisions tend to be those that have been thought-through and rehearsed ahead of time, a good example being the use of a pre-prepared evacuation plan if the office catches on fire. The normal decision-making process generally involves: Defining the problem.Collecting necessary information.Developing options.Devising a plan.Executing.Following-up. However reactive decision-making is, well, reactive. Because of this, there's not usually time to execute this full decision-making process, meaning that it's all-too-easy to make a bad decision when under pressure. What this means...