The 108 Skills of Natural Born Leaders.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Review

By Warren Blank. Amacom, 264 pages. $24.95.

Yes, Warren Blank does detail 108 skills that he thinks leaders have -- though he quickly concedes that no one has them all. And the notion of "natural born leaders" is contradicted early on, too. "No one is actually born a leader," he opines on the jacket. Instead, he says, people with strong leadership skills are often perceived by others that way.

Oooo-kay. This is one of those aspirational books that brings in practical examples from the business world to tie its messages -- often expressed essentially as aphorisms -- to reality. That's helpful, because without a bit of grounding, ideas like "use failure as a growth tool" (No. 7) or "sense possibilities" (No. 43) could grow opaque through layers of generalities.

Don't...