Leadership is not a sometime thing, it’s an all-the-time thing. You cannot lead every now and then, or only when the urge to lead hits you.

Leaders have to lead all the time. Leadership is a collection of skills that become habitual behaviors, either consciously or unconsciously. Great leadership is a deliberate, conscious, and purposeful habit. So too, unfortunately, is the failure to lead.

The old school of leadership is just that — old school. Gone are the days of Control and Command leaders in the workplace. And, to a lesser degree, gone too are the days of dominant personality leadership.

Sure, there are exceptions to these changes. But for the most part critical leadership skills have segued into a focus on behaviors and actions over traits, titles, and “looking the part.” As today’s pithy saying goes, you don’t have to have a title to be a leader.

Leadership is not a position, title, or spot on an organizational chart. Leadership is a skill to be developed, practiced, and enhanced.

This focus on the behaviors and actions of leaders is often paired with an understanding that leaders are made, not born, and that anyone, at any level within an organization, can be a leader.

One of the key challenges facing leaders is knowing when to be a leader, and when to be a manager. Management and leadership each comprise a set of distinct behavioral skills and responsibilities. These are not style changes or personality traits that can be flipped on and off like a light switch.

As Linda E. Ginzel, clinical professor of managerial psychology at the University of Chicago Booth School of Management wrote, “Recognize that what matters is not whether you fit into some leadership suit of clothes or match up to some template of a leader personality. What matters is how you choose to behave.”

Adds Roger Trapp, in an article in Forbes, “This distinction is crucial because, unlike traits, behaviors form the basis for skills, and skills can be practiced.” Additionally, skills can be developed and learned.