Many years ago, I read James Clavell's epic novel Shogun. The book transported me to 17th century Japan, where I watched an English sailor named Blackthorne navigate a world completely foreign to him. But one scene stuck with me more than any other. It wasn't a battle or a romance. It was a conversation about birds.

Lord Toranaga, the cunning warlord who would eventually become Shogun, was explaining his leadership philosophy to Blackthorne. He used his falcons as an example. "All men are falcons," Toranaga said. "Some are flown straight from the fist, killing anything that moves. Others are lazy and tempted by the lure. But all men can be broken. Learn to fly them at the right game, and they will do your hunting for you."

That passage hit me hard when I first read it decades ago. I've carried it with me through my military service, my education career, and now as I work with men who are rebuilding their lives after divorce. Because here's what Toranaga understood that most leaders miss: effective leadership development starts with recognizing that every person on your team has unique strengths, and your job as a leader is to identify those strengths and deploy them strategically.

You can't fly a peregrine falcon at the same prey you'd send a goshawk after. They're built differently. They hunt differently. They excel at different things. Try to force a falcon to hunt like a hawk, and you'll fail miserably. But understand what each bird does naturally, and you'll have the most effective hunting team imaginable.

The same principle applies to developing leaders.

The Problem With Cookie-Cutter Leadership Development

Most organizations approach leadership development like they're running a factory assembly line. Everyone gets the same training. Everyone reads the same books. Everyone sits through the same seminars about emotional intelligence and strategic thinking and effective communication.

Then we wonder why only a fraction of our people actually develop into effective leaders.

Here's the reality: when you treat all your potential leaders the same way, you're ignoring the fundamental truth that made Toranaga successful. Different people have different natural strengths. What comes easily to one person might be a lifelong struggle for another.

Research from Gallup spanning more than three decades supports what Toranaga intuitively understood. Strengths-based leadership focuses on identifying and developing each person's natural talents rather than trying to fix their weaknesses. Teams led by managers who focus on employees' strengths are 61% more engaged compared to teams led by managers who focus on weaknesses. Organizations that implemented strengths-based leadership saw profit increases of 14-29%.

Think about that for a moment. When you stop trying to make everyone the same kind of leader and start developing the kind of leader each person can naturally become, engagement jumps by more than half. Profits increase by nearly a third.

But we keep running the same generic programs, wondering why they don't work.

The Four Types of Falcons in Your Organization

In Shogun, Toranaga was known as "the greatest falconer in the realm." His success came from understanding that different falcons were suited for different prey. Some were fierce and aggressive, best deployed in direct attacks. Others were patient and strategic, perfect for long hunts. Some responded to gentle handling, while others needed firm discipline.

Your organization has the same variety. I've seen it in every team I've worked with, from military units to corporate departments to coaching groups. Here are the four types of leaders you're probably trying to develop right now:

The Direct Attacker: These are your action-oriented leaders. They see a problem, they attack it immediately. They're decisive, often impatient, and they get things done. They excel in crisis situations where quick decisions matter. But ask them to build consensus or navigate complex political situations, and you'll watch them struggle. They're your peregrines, striking fast and hard.

The Strategic Builder: These leaders think in systems and long-term consequences. They're patient, methodical, and they see connections others miss. Give them a complex problem with multiple moving parts, and they'll construct an elegant solution. Rush them into quick decisions, and they'll second-guess themselves. They're your goshawks, powerful but needing time to position themselves.

The Relationship Connector: Some leaders naturally build bridges between people. They read emotions, understand motivations, and create teams that actually want to work together. Put them in charge of team building or conflict resolution, and they shine. Ask them to make tough calls that will upset people, and they'll agonize. They're your merlins, smaller but incredibly effective in the right situations.

The Analytical Planner: These leaders live in data and process. They spot inefficiencies, optimize systems, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks. Give them a chaotic situation that needs structure, and they'll create order. Ask them to inspire people emotionally, and you'll hear crickets. They're your kestrels, precise and focused on specific targets.

Here's the critical question: which type of leader are you trying to develop in your organization? If your answer is "all of the above," you're missing the point.

You can't train a peregrine to hunt like a goshawk. You shouldn't try.

Flying Your Falcons at the Right Game

Lord Toranaga's genius wasn't just recognizing different types of falcons. It was knowing which prey to send each one after.

The same principle applies to leadership development. Once you understand each person's natural strengths, your job is to create opportunities where those strengths can flourish.

Your Direct Attacker doesn't need a workshop on patience and consensus-building. He needs assignments that require decisive action and quick results. Put him in charge of the project that's stalled and needs someone to cut through the red tape. Let him develop his natural ability to take action and produce results quickly.

Your Strategic Builder doesn't need pressure to "speed up" her decision-making. She needs complex problems that benefit from careful analysis. Give her the long-term strategic initiatives that will shape your organization's future. Let her develop her ability to see patterns and build sustainable systems.

Your Relationship Connector doesn't need more training on data analysis. He needs opportunities to build teams and resolve conflicts. Make him responsible for integrating new team members or bridging departmental divides. Let him develop his natural ability to connect people and create cohesion.

Your Analytical Planner doesn't need another seminar on emotional intelligence. She needs processes to optimize and systems to improve. Put her in charge of efficiency initiatives or quality control. Let her develop her ability to create order from chaos.

When you fly each leader at their natural game, something remarkable happens. They don't just get better at what they do, they excel. They stop feeling like they're constantly swimming upstream, trying to be something they're not. They start feeling like they're finally doing what they were built to do.

And here's what most people miss: when someone is operating in their area of natural strength, they're not just more effective, they're more engaged. Work stops feeling like work and starts feeling like purpose.

The Complementary Team Principle

But Toranaga didn't just hunt with one falcon. He had a whole collection, each suited for different situations. When he went hunting, he chose the right bird for the prey he was after that day.

Smart leaders do the same thing with their teams.

One of the biggest mistakes I see in leadership development is the assumption that every leader needs to be well-rounded. We try to turn our Direct Attackers into patient consensus-builders. We push our Strategic Builders to make faster decisions. We force our Relationship Connectors to be more data-driven and our Analytical Planners to be more emotionally expressive.

This is backwards.

Instead of trying to make each leader well-rounded individually, build a well-rounded leadership team. Pair your Direct Attacker with your Strategic Builder. Let your Relationship Connector work alongside your Analytical Planner. Create teams where different strengths complement each other rather than competing.

Research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that teams perform best when members have complementary rather than identical strengths. When you put together a team where everyone excels at the same thing, you get redundancy and blind spots. When you build a team where different people bring different strengths, you get comprehensive coverage and mutual support.

This is exactly what Toranaga understood about his falcons. He didn't try to make all his birds hunt the same way. He built a collection where each bird's strengths covered another bird's limitations.

Your organization should do the same thing.

Managing Weaknesses Without Obsessing Over Them

Now, I know what you're thinking. What about weaknesses? If we just focus on strengths, won't people's weaknesses become problems?

Yes. And no.

Here's the nuanced truth: weaknesses need to be managed, not developed. There's a difference.

If your Direct Attacker struggles with patience, you don't need to spend years trying to make him patient. You need to pair him with someone whose natural strength is careful analysis. If your Relationship Connector has trouble making tough calls, you don't need to put her through endless training on decisive leadership. You need to position her where her relationship skills add value and have someone else handle the final decisions.

Toranaga's falcons each had limitations. Some couldn't fly in strong wind. Others got tired quickly. Some refused to hunt certain prey. He didn't try to fix these limitations. He managed them by choosing the right situations for each bird and not sending them into circumstances where their weaknesses would be exposed.

This doesn't mean ignoring weaknesses entirely. Everyone needs basic competency across a range of skills. But there's a massive difference between achieving basic competency and trying to transform a weakness into a strength. The first is possible and necessary. The second is usually a waste of time and energy.

Gallup's research shows that people have several times more potential for growth when building on their strengths rather than trying to fix their weaknesses. Yet most leadership development programs spend the majority of their time and resources trying to shore up weaknesses.

Stop doing that.

Get people to baseline competency in their weak areas so those weaknesses don't sabotage them. Then invest your time and energy developing their strengths to exceptional levels.

The Self-Awareness Foundation

Before you can develop anyone's leadership strengths, they need to know what those strengths actually are. This is where most organizations fail right out of the gate.

We promote people into leadership positions based on technical competence or tenure, then throw them into the deep end and expect them to figure out their leadership style on the fly. This is like handing someone a falcon and saying "go hunting" without ever teaching them what kind of bird they're holding or what it's naturally good at.

Real leadership development starts with self-awareness. Before you can fly your leaders at the right game, they need to understand what game they're naturally built to hunt.

This means creating space for assessment and reflection. Not the superficial personality tests that most companies use, but deep exploration of natural talents, energy sources, and optimal operating conditions. When does this person feel most alive and effective? What tasks do they lose themselves in? What situations drain them versus energize them?

In my work with divorced men rebuilding their lives, I've learned that self-awareness is always the first step. You can't rise above your rim until you understand exactly where your rim is and what strengths you have to work with. The same principle applies to leadership development.

Your potential leaders need to know: Am I a Direct Attacker who thrives in crisis? A Strategic Builder who excels at complex problems? A Relationship Connector who builds bridges? An Analytical Planner who creates order?

Once they know their natural hunting style, you can start developing them effectively.

Creating Development Opportunities That Match Strengths

Here's where most leadership development programs completely miss the mark. They create the same development opportunities for everyone, regardless of natural strengths.

Every potential leader gets the same project management assignment. Everyone leads the same type of team. Everyone presents to the same audiences. Everyone navigates the same challenges.

This is like taking all your falcons out to hunt rabbits. Maybe your peregrine will do okay. But your goshawk and merlin and kestrel? They're going to struggle, and you're going to incorrectly conclude that they're not cut out for leadership.

Instead, create diverse development opportunities that allow different strengths to shine. If you want to develop your Direct Attackers, give them turnaround situations that need immediate action. If you want to develop your Strategic Builders, give them long-term planning initiatives. If you want to develop your Relationship Connectors, give them team integration projects. If you want to develop your Analytical Planners, give them process improvement assignments.

The development opportunity should match the natural strength you're trying to develop. This seems obvious when you write it out, but most organizations do exactly the opposite.

This doesn't mean people only work in their comfort zones. It means the primary challenge of the assignment should align with their natural strengths, while the secondary challenges push them to develop baseline competencies in other areas.

When you do this right, people grow faster and with less frustration. They build confidence by succeeding at what they're naturally good at, then gradually expand their capabilities into adjacent areas.

The Mentor-Matching Principle

In Shogun, Blackthorne learns to navigate Japanese culture through Lady Mariko, who teaches him not just the language but the entire way of thinking that makes Japan work. She's effective as his mentor because she understands both his world and the world he's trying to enter.

Your leadership development needs the same kind of strategic mentoring.

Too often, we assign mentors based on convenience or hierarchy. A senior leader gets paired with a junior leader, regardless of whether their strengths align or whether the senior leader can actually teach what the junior leader needs to learn.

This is ineffective.

If you're developing a Direct Attacker, pair them with a senior Direct Attacker who has learned how to temper decisiveness with just enough strategy to avoid costly mistakes. If you're developing a Relationship Connector, pair them with someone who excels at building coalitions and managing conflict.

The mentor should exemplify the leadership style the mentee is trying to develop, with the wisdom that comes from years of operating in that style.

But here's the sophisticated move: also give your developing leaders exposure to mentors with different strengths. Your Direct Attacker needs to understand how Strategic Builders think, even if he'll never become one himself. Your Strategic Builder needs to see how Direct Attackers make quick decisions, even if she'll always be more methodical.

This creates leaders who understand and value different approaches while still operating primarily from their own natural strengths.

When Organizations Get This Wrong

Let me tell you what happens when you ignore this principle and try to develop all your leaders the same way.

First, you lose your best potential leaders because they conclude they're not "leadership material." Your Direct Attacker decides he's too impatient. Your Strategic Builder decides she's too slow. Your Relationship Connector decides he's too soft. Your Analytical Planner decides she's too technical.

They're all wrong. They're just being measured against a generic leadership template that doesn't match their natural strengths.

Second, you promote people into leadership positions based on the wrong criteria. You promote your best technical person even though they have no leadership strengths at all. You promote the person who's good at playing politics even though they have no capacity to actually lead people. You promote based on tenure or credentials rather than natural leadership ability.

Third, you create leaders who are constantly exhausted because they're working against their nature. They spend all their energy trying to be something they're not, with nothing left over for actually leading. They eventually burn out or become cynical or both.

Fourth, you build leadership teams with massive blind spots because everyone has the same strengths and the same weaknesses. You end up with a team full of Direct Attackers who can't think strategically, or a team full of Strategic Builders who can't execute quickly, or a team full of Relationship Connectors who avoid tough decisions.

This is why so many leadership development programs produce mediocre results despite huge investments of time and money. You're trying to turn all your falcons into the same kind of bird, then wondering why most of them never learn to hunt effectively.

The Personal Application

If you're reading this and you're in a leadership position, or aspiring to one, here's what you need to know about yourself:

What's your natural hunting style? When do you feel most alive and effective as a leader? What situations drain you versus energize you? What challenges do you instinctively know how to handle versus which ones make you uncomfortable?

Stop trying to be the kind of leader you think you're supposed to be. Start becoming the kind of leader you're naturally built to be.

If you're a Direct Attacker, stop apologizing for being decisive and action-oriented. Develop that strength to exceptional levels. Learn enough strategy to avoid stupid mistakes, but don't try to become a Strategic Builder. Embrace what you are and become the best version of it.

If you're a Strategic Builder, stop trying to speed up your decision-making to match the Direct Attackers around you. Your careful analysis is your strength. Develop it. Learn to execute quickly enough to be effective, but don't sacrifice your natural ability to see patterns and consequences that others miss.

If you're a Relationship Connector, stop feeling bad about avoiding conflict or struggling with tough decisions. Your ability to build bridges and create teams is valuable. Develop it to exceptional levels. Learn to make necessary hard calls without agonizing over them, but don't try to become someone who enjoys conflict.

If you're an Analytical Planner, stop thinking you need to be more emotional or inspirational. Your ability to create systems and maintain quality is crucial. Develop it. Learn to communicate your vision clearly, but don't try to become a charismatic motivator if that's not who you are.

The strongest leaders I know are not well-rounded individuals who are mediocre at everything. They're specialists who are exceptional at their natural strengths and competent enough in other areas to avoid sabotaging themselves.

Be that kind of leader.

The Bottom Line

Lord Toranaga became Shogun not because he had the biggest army or the most resources. He became Shogun because he understood people better than his rivals did. He knew which of his followers would be fierce in battle and which would be clever in negotiation. He knew who to send on suicide missions and who to keep close for strategic counsel. He knew how to deploy each person where their natural strengths would be most effective.

That's what made him the greatest leader of his era.

Your organization needs the same sophistication. Stop treating leadership development like you're running all your people through the same factory process. Start treating it like you're training falconers, each with different birds that hunt different game.

Identify the natural strengths of your potential leaders. Create development opportunities that allow those strengths to flourish. Build teams where different strengths complement each other. Stop trying to fix weaknesses and start amplifying what's already strong.

When you do this, you'll develop leaders who are not just competent but exceptional. Leaders who aren't exhausted from constantly working against their nature but energized by operating in their area of natural strength. Leaders who don't just survive in leadership positions but thrive in them.

Learn to fly your leaders at the right game, and they'll do your hunting for you.

Your move, brother. What's your natural hunting style?