Are Leaders Born or Taught? w. Brent Adamson

Host Justin McMenamy continues his conversation with Brent Adamson, co-author of “The Challenger Sale” and “The Framemaking Sale”.   When asked if Challengers are born or taught, Adamson argues Challengers are made, not born, noting their research focused on trainable skills, knowledge, and behaviors rather than traits like charisma.  Adamson reframes the key question from “Which profile am I?” to “What do Challenger reps do and how can I model those behaviors?”   In discussing hiring, Adamson emphasizes distinguishing fully realized Challenger skills from Challenger potential, often found outside traditional sales roles, and prioritizing harder-to-train skills like empathy and logical argumentation over industry experience.   On COVID, Adamson describes how issues escalated from behavior changes to identity conflicts, amplified by social media, and suggests leaders should deescalate change by focusing on behavior.   He then explains his more recent work on “FrameMaking”: in a content-saturated, AI-accelerated market, sellers should reduce customer overwhelm by building decision confidence—helping buyers ask the right questions and connecting them to peer experiences—rather than providing more insights or claiming expert authority.