Are Great Leaders Born or Made - Essay Example

Are great leaders born or made? Introduction In order to run a successful business, an organization needs effective leaders. Leaders and employees are subject to a worldwide search because of the competitive nature of business these days. Leadership is more of actions rather than preaching. Leadership is persons ability to lead from the front with conviction of great vision and passion, despite many setbacks. It also involves having a sense of responsibility, setting a role model with qualities such as courage, conviction and commitment. Also, leadership is a way of calling ‘we’ not ‘I’ because there is not one leader who has succeeded as an individual. It is important to know whether leadership is a talent or a skill. If the leadership is a talent, then it is an inborn quality as talents are intrinsic, but if leadership is a skill, then it can be obtained by rapacious learning, continuous practice, training, experience and reading. If the leadership is a talent, true leaders are born, but if it is a skill, true leaders are made. Is true leadership born or manufactured? This is a timeless as the age old controversy about the chicken and the egg. To cut to the discussion, the answer is: “mostly made.” Great leaders are made since leadership is a skill that can be leant through education, continuous practice, training, and experiences. Great leaders develop/advance through a never-ending process of self-study and complete education. Analysis Are true leaders born or made? To cut to the debate, the answer is: “mostly made.” Research conducted over time has shown that qualities of leadership are about one third born and two thirds made. The job of leading nation, military unit, or an organization, and doing it efficiently, is fantastically complex. The complexity of human knowledge on processes and social groups makes it hard to believe that a person can be born with all the qualities needed to lead no sense at all. It is true that leadership traits are mostly made. That is good news for the people involved in leadership development. An interview with some leaders revealed that great leaders gathered their prowess through challenging assignments. Others point out to critical incidents from their youths while others pointed to working with great bosses or mentors who natured them. According to Forbes journal, the most powerful and effective way to grow as a leader is by becoming truly self-aware (Erikaa). The article also explains that becoming self-aware means cultivating (on a daily basis) an accurate sense of how a person shows up in the world and what the personal motivation is. Also, a person needs to assess his/her personal strengths and weaknesses as a person and as a leader. A person with the desire and will power become an efficient leader. These traits, once combined with qualities attained from studying, education, training and experience produces almost perfect leaders. In order to inspire his people with high levels of teamwork, a leader must know and do certain things. These ‘things’ do not come naturally but are acquired through successive work and study. The best leaders are continually studying and working to improve personal leadership skills. A leader leads by applying his/her leadership attributes i.e. values, belief, character, ethics, skills and knowledge. A research made over time showed that leaders learn about 80% of their craft on the job. Leaders learn from watching other leaders and also emulating their behavior. They seek mentors and choose role models. They seek for advice and confront other leaders about how to handle certain situations. They improve by getting feedback and using it to learn. They use the information to modify their behavior so as to get better results (Riggio). Among the catchiest headlines that can fascinate people is one that reads: ‘scientists uncover a leadership gene.’ However, people are going to have to wait forever for these headlines because this can never happen as there is no such gene: unless they invent them. Human nature makes people adaptable to a given situation for survival. Several leadership researches made over time have identified a few number of successful strategies in both developing and identifying highly effective leaders (Johnson et al. 220). By applying these principles/rules as part of a formal leadership development initiative, companies can select the best candidate/candidates to fill their leadership vacant positions. Trained leaders who work through their employees are in a better state to succeed and attain the business aims of the company as compared with perceived ‘natural leaders placed into similar leadership positions’ Such strategies will be required to overcome an existing leadership gap in the business environment today (Gentry et al.). Statistics compiled by the US Census Bureau shows that millions of baby boomers are expected to leave the workforce between 2008 and 2020. The process shall cut the ratio of working age who are adults to the older generation of adults by nearly half, thus opening a significant leadership chasm within corporations. After the retirement of the boomers, their younger counterparts with a few years of experience will be required to fill the void positions. If not correctly chosen, inexperienced leaders who fail to lead fellow employees shall present a significant hindrance to meeting the business objectives of their respective companies. Another study showed that two dominant factors that distinguished the top companies in Asia Pacific are: 1. The attention to set particular development needs of the individual leader coupled with corporate wants to produce a topic/motion that generates strong leaders and, 2. The speed with which the top organizations accelerate the development and advancement of key talent through exposure, experience, and custom training programs. The aim of Asia Pacific is to move its leaders quickly through the right process/conditions of development and experiences. The two factors that distinguish top leadership companies is the attention to the put-together leadership needs of the individuals and corporation and leveraging custom training programs to accelerate key leadership talent. According to Johnson et al., (p 217), it is important to note that management qualities are in a huge way different from leadership capabilities. While management is about planning, structuring, monitoring and organizing, leadership deals with the ability to influence others to get stuff done. A manager who meets tactical business goals does not automatically translate to an individual who succeeds by working through others. What the entire world needs/wants today is not only leaders who are intellectually smart, but also emotionally intelligent, compassionate, insightful, vision beckoned and values based guided by an ethic of service. The leaders who are attached to their followers can use this as a spring-board to provide leadership skills into an uncertain future. Leadership is not given, it is achieved. Most companies possibly use the wrong criteria in selecting leaders as they do it by focusing on technical rather than leadership skills. Leaders who want to develop are left to their own devices when their respective organization deny them the support needed for growth. Surprisingly, when the same leaders search on Amazon for ‘leadership books,’ they find more than 100,000 options! That explains why leadership feels so impossible and complex. Leaders are made and not born. They are made by use of hard effort, which is the price that an aspiring individual pays in order to achieve his leadership goals that are worthwhile (Johnson et al. 218). Though policy makers used to believe that leadership is born, today, it is the reverse. They tell a story saying: ’leadership is an acquirable skill.’ Recently, study on leadership by Richard Arvey revealed that the whole 70 percent of leadership is learned. In simple terms, this means that anyone can use learning to become an effective leader. Recently, the wall street journal asked the public whether schools should ‘put more attention on interpersonal training and information within their programs or- should the programs require more degree of proficiency in the skills, in the students admitted?’ Surprisingly, the discussion rotated around whether relationship skills and communication are learned or inherent. While one reader said that a person not already learned to communicate openly can never acquire the skill, another said that by focusing on class discussions and team projects, most schools clearly provide this training. Most readers ended up agreeing with leadership as a ‘being made quality.’ Counter argument Leaders are born not made However, there are some ‘raw materials,’ some inborn characteristics, that guide people in becoming leaders. A study done on identical and differential twins has produced evidence saying that approximately 30 percent of the variation in leadership emergence and style was accounted for by heritability. The remaining difference was sourced to differences in the physical environmental factors e.g. individuals having a difference in role models and also, early opportunities for leadership development (Johnson et al. 218). The belief that leaders are born possible results in a focus more selection i.e. identifying the right people rather than development i.e. developing the people available. According to scientists, great leaders are born and not made. They also argue that brains of leaders are specially wired differently. As proof, they say that leaders are born with more grey matter which controls the decision making and memory. As the saying goes- some people are born great, others achieve greatness while the rest have greatness thrust upon them. A research by military academics shows that great leaders such as Winston Churchill are born not made. The research might revolutionize how companies assess and develop leaders. Use of brain scans might come handy so that organizations can identify those with the “leadership gene” early and train them accordingly (Stephenson). It seems that the most successful people have more grey matter in their brains, in places that control memory and decision making, thus giving them an edge in a situation where making the right call matters. Scans of 103 people who volunteered from the United States military, ranging in rank, found neural networks in the prefrontal and frontal lobes of those deemed as ‘leaders’ were quite different from the rest. The study was originally posted in the American Psychological Association’s journal of applied psychology. In many situations, people are heard complaining that they cannot follow their bosses or even trust them. Many people might even find their bosses arrogant and selfish or even complain that their bosses do not listen to their opinions. Unlike human workplaces, groups of animals and even fish know that it is vital to agree on where and when to go there and how: in order to take advantage of group living. Leaders are to some extent, predictable because they share certain common features. Leaders show higher scores in certain personality traits in humans, notably extraversion. Likewise, in animals, more active and bolder individuals tend to become leaders. Theories concerned with the evolution suggest that leadership evolve through positive feedback. People who force their preferences on other people tend to be followed, which consequently encourages the followers to initiate more often (Johnson et al., 219). Research also shows that a person cannot become a leader if he were born a follower, however, leaders can learn to follow. Scientists conducted a study using pairs of fish, specifically in danger situations. They discovered that when fish emerge from the safe cover to a risky area, the bolder fish more likely initiated collective movement while the shyer fish tend to follow. The study showed that the fish can learn to follow, but the same fish struggle to learn to lead regardless of their character. The fish inability to adjust to their tendency to lead has implications for social groups. Analysis done on social psychology has shown that differences in the trait of extroversion within members of the group can aid leaders emerge, which leads to improving group performance. (Nakayama). While there is existence of a few leadership traits in everyone, it does not make everyone a leader. In order to get to be a leader, one has to step forward and to be accepted by his/her followers. In order to step forward, a person got to have the drive and desire to lead. These factors are personality traits, durable and long lived. Features such as physical attractiveness, extroversion and intelligence are traits that followers sought for in a leader. A leader needs to be smarter than the followers. The only exception among the leaders to this rule appears to be George W. Bush. Conclusion Leadership is not a talent; it is a skill which can be acquired by training, learning, education, experience and continuous practice. It should be known that leaders are not born, but are made due to circumstances and external environment. The journey to leadership is not easy but an uphill and a Herculean task. Anybody can become a leader, but everybody cannot become a leader. Leaders lead their lives with lots of struggles and sacrifices. They also live larger than life lives even after their death as they live more in the hearts of their people rather than in the minds of the people. The leaders direct and inspire their followers to become great leaders and achievers. Works cited: Anderson, Erikaa. “Are Leaders Born or Made?” Forbes. Forbes. Magazine, 21st Nov. 2012. Web. 1st. Apr. 2014. Atwater, Lewis "leaders are made more than born” International Journal of psychology. Vol.22. issue s1. April 2004, p. 109-112. Web. 1st May/2014. Gentry, William, Marian Ruderman, Jennifer J. Deal, and Sarah Stawiski, “Are Leaders Born or Made?” N.p., n,d. Web 1st May/2014 Johnson, Andrew M., Philip A. Vernon, Julie M. Mccarthy, Mindy Molson, Julie A. Harris, and Kerry L. Jang. “Nature vs Nurture: Are Leaders Born or Made? A Behavior Genetic Investigation of Leadership Style.” Twin Research (1998) 1.4 (1998): 216-23. Print. Nakayama, Shinnosuke. “Leaders Are Born Not Made, Fish Study Finds.” Scientific American Journal. 28th August 2013. Web. 1st May/2014. Riggio, Ronald E. “Leaders: Born or Made?” Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness + Find a Therapist. N.p., 18 Mar. 2009. Web. 1st May/2014. Stephenson, Carol. “Are Leaders Born or Made?” Ivey business Journal 11th/December/2012. Web. 1st /May/2014. Read More