Leadership is demonstrated - not measured

Not age dependent

It's often a misconception that leadership is a function of age. In my experience leadership is akin to wisdom, which can be summed up as the difference between knowledge and experience. Wisdom can be attained by gaining experience in a compressed time frame. Soldiers in the theatre of battle acquire a lot of experience in a much-reduced timeline. This exposure drives combat tactics (wisdom) and forces the survival instinct to tie into the military training (knowledge), thereby resulting in a wise, alert and capable soldier.

The same kinds of compressed experiential exposure develop leadership skills in the young. Scout programs, team sports, and other group activities tend to develop leaders either by design or by accident. We live in an age where US President, Barrack Obama, was 47 when inaugurated, a mere teenager by any other definition.