Leaders Are Born Not Made?

Leadership is, and always has been, a vital aspect of social and economic constructs. It is essential to the survival of societies, industries, organizations, and virtually any group of individuals that come together for a common purpose. However, leadership is difficult to define in a single, definitive sense. As such, theories of leadership, what constitutes a great leader, and how leaders are made have evolved constantly throughout history, and still continue to change today in hopes of improving upon our understanding of leadership, its importance, and how it can be most effective in modern organizational cultures.

There are numerous theories about leadership. Some of the theories suggest that leaders are born while others suggest that leaders are made through training.

As a growing debate, the question at hand is whether great leaders are born with specific leadership traits, or if one can be taught certain traits over time. According to (Wikipedia.com) the approach of listing leadership qualities, often termed "trait theory of leadership", assumes certain traits or characteristics will tend to lead to effective leadership. I believe that leadership traits such as honest, competent, initiative, inspiring, hardworking, intelligent, and the ability to lead the masses, are some of the leadership traits one should possess. Within this paper, I will examine the overall concept of leadership traits, while observing the traits that were, or can be associated with successful leaders.

The trait leadership theory focuses on the individual leader’s personal characteristics as the basis of its investigations. It is one of the earliest leadership theories upon whose tenets many researches on leadership have been done. Although it is not very coherent, its heuristic nature has contributed to its significance in leadership research. Zaccaro and Klimoski (2002) define traits of reference to leadership as the stable personality characteristics, which result in a consistent leadership performance pattern, given different scenarios and groups. They include individual personalities, temperament, rationale, prowess, as well as cognitive abilities. Initially, the theory explored both physical and psychological characteristics that tell apart leaders from non-leaders.

Leaders aren 't born; their made. The process of leadership is long, complicated and has made elements. Respect, dignity, discipline, people skills, vision, emotional strength, opportunity, preparedness and experience are just some of the intangible elements which come into play when talking leadership.

The Trait Approach was the 1st systematic attempt to study leadership. In the 20th century it was known as the “great man” theory. This approach takes a look at the leaders personal attributes such as but not limited to: motivation, energy, intuition, creativity, persuasiveness and foresight. Some of the traits that are essential to this list include: intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity and sociability. Thus it focuses mainly on the leader and not on the followers or situations. The strengths of the Trait Approach includes: 1) it is intuitively appealing, 2) it has research to back it’s theory, 3) it highlights the leader, 4) it identifies what the traits of a leader should have and whether the traits we do

Moreover, the trait approach gives a deeper understanding of the leader element in the leadership process by emphasising exclusively on the leader, (Gore et al, 2011). The trait theory does not offer hypotheses about the role of situational variance or characteristic of the followers. Instead, this approach provide information about leaders, and about which traits cause which behaviours and that certain set of traits are central to the leadership process and play an indispensible part of effective leadership.

LEADERS ARE BORN NOT MADE There have been an age long debate, and humans since beginning of time, have tried to come up with an answer to this question – Are Leaders born or are they made?. This question has generated an age long debate, which in turn has resulted in various school of thoughts, some believe that leaders are born, while others think otherwise. My contribution to this lifelong debate will serve as a pointer to my position on this issue. I strongly believe that leaders are born and not made. Who is a Leader? - “A leader is a person who guides others toward a common goal, showing the way by example, and creating an environment in which other team members feel actively involved in the entire process. A leader is not the boss of

The word ‘leadership’ often times triggers a preconceived image of an ideal leader—typically accompanied by the aura that the effective leader should be at the top of the hierarchy, ready to produce the solutions to complex problems. However, this is not true of leadership, given that effective leadership is not achieved by position but rather through style and situational awareness. Examining leadership requires the consideration of the catalysts for different types of leaders. Popular leader development theories tend to focus on the natural servitude of the leader, his or her capability to manage, and leader behavior.

Leadership is something that can be taught (Northouse, 2015. There are some valuable theories, which will be discussed later in this paper, how a leader can develop into having a strong influence in any daily aspect of their lives. Also later in this paper it will be discussed the various styles of leaders that can affect the behaviors of the actions of each leader. Each leader can learn these attributes or some of them just have the natural capability of being a leader.

So if a leader needs a combination of characteristics that makes them successful is a leader born or made? The answer is both. Some people already possess the traits that they need to be leaders and are often leaders from an early age. Some people observe and eventually become leaders. Leadership can be taught. Over the years many theories about leadership have been developed. These theories include but are not limited to trait theories, behavioral theories, contingency theories, and functional theories.

Are leaders made or born? The ever-persistent question asked when someone starts talking about leadership. To this I say we were all born, correct? Leaders and the leadership role are not inherited traits passed down through the DNA genome pool of the extraordinary powerful leaders. No, they build upon their naturally skills and abilities, and observe behaviors of great leaders before them. Believing in themselves that their best is yet to come. So the answer is neither, great leaders adapt and learn from their surroundings, the best leaders are the beast learners.

Research on management and leadership in organizations over the past century shows there are still no clear definitions or answers about what counts as effective and successful leadership; the field remains varied and argued. Actual studies of leadership began in the early twentieth century. The research and studies on leadership have resulted in defining what characters, traits and attitudes are considered to be significant for leaders to possess. The early studies of leadership theories focused on the person and their behaviors, currently known as leadership trait theories and behavioral theories. It is important for organizational leaders and managers to understand what characteristics, traits and actions of an individual mark a great leader when forming a strong diverse workforce.

In today’s business world, organizations will tell you there are numerous factors that contribute to the overall success of the company. These factors include great people, great culture, great leadership, great operations, and a great vision for the organization. In my opinion, great leaders are the ones who inspire and motivate the employees to be the best they can be. We have all heard the saying that “leaders are born not made”, but I would argue great leadership takes a heavy dose of self-reflection and discipline, along with consistent and constant educational and mentoring experiences. Having been in leadership roles for over 22 years of my life, I can assure you I am not the same leader today, that I was 20 years ago. The key for organizational success is to have people that want to be developed while developing others. Great leaders typically breed great leaders, and these successors are the future leadership of one’s organization or the next. Dubrin (2016) stated that leadership development programs are widely practiced in a variety of ways across a variety of organizations. My research proved him right when comparing leadership programs from the healthcare, fire, and education industries.

There is a well-known and often asked question on whether leaders are born or made. While the origin of the question is unknown, the answer in response to the question are numerous. The terms leadership and management have become increasingly prevalent in today’s workplace. They are often used in place of each other and in some cases the terms leadership and management are used identically to each other. This has not always been the case. Leadership has a long history that dates as far back as biblical times. According to Bass, “it is one of the world’s oldest preoccupations” (Bass, 1990). On the other hand, management as it relates to the workplace is a relatively newer concept in that it became more visible in organizations around the time of the Industrial Revolution. It was during this time that large scale industrial plants with their high number of employees were in need of people and processes that would make their complex and disorganized organizations operate smoothly and more efficiently (Kotter, 1990). As a result, management as it is known today became commonplace.