Agreed.
...which in game terms means he's picking up leadership feats left right and centre.
That's merely an inference though. The text does not present us with anything to suggest "picking up" anything - there's no textual description of the process of adding these abilities. He could just as easily have always had them, but was not using them.
Indeed, he quite easily slips into leadership role as soon as he meets the hobbits in Bree.