Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Are Leaders Born or Are They Made?"
Are Leaders Born or Are They Made?"
or
Are They Made?
M. Wierzgac wrote:
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I was born.
B. Sanders wrote:
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I. Babelli wrote:
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R. Evans wrote:
Both. I absolutely believe that leadership can be taught/learned. This case has been made in many ways, including various
research over the years. This has been addressed by people who have answered your question in one of the three postings.
I also absolutely believe that some people are "born leaders." My father, a career military man, used to say this: "If you
think there's no such thing as a born leader, leave a group of kids on a playground and come back in 20 minutes. Without
fail, when you come back, there will be one kid leading that group. In many cases, it won't be the most popular kid and it
often won't be the kid you expected. Furthermore, it frequently isn't the kid that wanted to lead the group. It will be the kid
that has 'that something' that enables him/her to say, 'let's do (whatever)' and the others will follow. Interestingly, that
same kid will quite likely become a leader throughout his/her life."
I am certain that some people, particularly those who cite traditional research will disagree with this scenario. The most
likely argument is that "leading" kids on a playground is not really leadership. I submit that one key aspect of leadership is
evoking in others the desire to follow. After all, without followers, leaders are just people out for a walk.
I believe one reason that many people argue against born leaders is that it would seem to doom others to being permanent
followers. Many people insist that it must be one or the other, born leaders vs. developed leaders, and since there are
clearly many developed leaders, then there can be no such thing as born leaders. In my opinion, accepting both pathways to
leadership is more logical, and less narrow minded. It is also easily observable.
Leadership is often attributable to charisma, something that cannot be taught. Yes, there are leaders who are not
charismatic. But there are leaders -- very successful leaders -- who derive much of their leadership success from charisma
alone. I believe the most dynamic and effective leaders are those who posses the natural instincts for leadership and then
work to develop leadership skills through refinement and training.
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R. Betts wrote:
The short answer is yes. There are certain traits that have to be organic to you nature. In
other words, some things you just can't fake. "Soft skills" can be explained, but not
engrained. The "Hard skills" can be learned until conscious competence is achieved. Until
the become second nature, if you will. But the ability to share your vision for your company
in a way that is not only understood completely, but generates the sort of rabid support you
find a English football matches isn't learnable. It takes more than a polished PowerPoint
deck and some pithy words on a bunch of 3x5 cards. You must be able show your passion
without looking like you are a straight jacket a way from the funny farm. You have to be
able to generate a rare sort of commitment and loyalty. Your employees have to be ready to
take it to the wall for you, because they know that you'll do the same for them. You have to
hurt when they hurt and laugh when they laugh. You have to be ready to admit you are
wrong and not rub it in when you are right. You have to know how to build and grow
meaningful relationships. Even if you don't have a title or corner office, a leader, a truly
great leader, will shine with the blinding intensity of a supernova.
It's not nature vs. nurture, but nature and nurture.
Combine them and it's magic.
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T. Modeste wrote:
The problem with great leaders is that they are too few and far between. So waiting
around or searching for a great leader can soon run afoul of the law of diminishing
returns. Because, in the meantime, weve got an organization to run and simply
cannot afford to wait around until the next great leader deigns to walk through the
door. Besides, we probably couldnt afford him/her and he/she would probably have
better things in mind than fooling around with our organization.
Luckily for us, in our everyday work, we can get along very well without great
leadership. And we'd be highly inefficient if we waited around for a great leader every
time we needed to fill a leadership slot.
Therefore, what we do is that we take the people we have and work with them to
make them into the kind of leaders we need to get the job done. Experience shows
that as a rule, such leaders do a good enough job at the level needed. In fact, some of
them even turn out to be superb leaders.
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A. Bose wrote:
Leaders are born.
Not everyone can be a Leader. I would rather say Leaders are synonymous to
"Great Communicators who have an aggressive attitude to win". Whether you
motivate people, lead a team, or possess great negotiation skills, you should
be a good communicator first.
A leader should command and vision for their team, or organisation, and
most importantly, the people in his team. They give a strategic direction to the
people of his team and set goals with an objective to achieve with optimum
utilization of resources. The best part about the leaders are they are able to
motivate their team and they take the team along with them. They just don't
lead a team but also teach them how to lead and make them responsible.
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C. Braverman wrote:
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S. Balakrishnan wrote:
R. Torres wrote:
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C. Braverman wrote:
Leader....Desire......
M. Krasnyansky wrote:
Let's go to the basic: Encyclopedia Britannica
"Leadership: Exercising of influence over others
on behalf of the leader's purposes, aims or goals.
I think 80/20 rule works here as well: 80% born
with individual, and 20% by training.
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M. Herbert wrote:
Leadership is earned, it is a gift from those who are willing to trust you and follow your
direction. I am a believer in the Marcus Buckingham school of leadership in that the
most important task of a leader is to create clarity of purpose.
I have seen any people with attributes that we mistakenly label as leadership- they were
charismatic, or visionary, or very smart. Perhaps it is overly simplistic, but to me the
most important element of leadership is trust. Do I believe you have my interests and
the interests of the organization in mind when you make decisions?
The time to measure an effective leader is at the end of the journey. We can all be
effective at leading a project or a task- true leadership endures the test of time.
If you want to be a true leader then you have to be willing to put the interests of the
organization above your own interests and demonstrate that consistently.
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Y. Hanoulle wrote:
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H. Cuevas wrote:
This is a quintessential
question. My answer:
leaders are born although
they might get better and
polished with time.
Also, leadership styles
varies along time as you
reach maturity
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