Are Leaders Born or Made - Term Paper Example

1. Introduction Leaders are people who have the capa to motivate people towards common goals and objectives. The leaders are intrinsically linkedwith the followers. Leadership, within organization becomes a huge asset because it helps to exploit the competencies of the workforce for improved performance outcome. In the contemporary environment of competitive global business, effective organizational leadership provides the necessary cutting edge leverage against the industry rivals and greatly facilitates in gaining credibility and market position. Hence, leaders become the major anchors who help create a sense of achievement amongst the employees and provide impetus for higher goals leading to personal and professional success. This leads to the interesting questions of whether the leaders are born with leadership traits or the leadership traits can be developed within the person to become a sensitive and creative leader? 2. Relevance of Organizational leadership Organizational leadership assumes special meaning because it motivates and encourages others to strive towards common goals with renewed enthusiasm. Sjostrand and Tyrstrup (2001) assert that one needs to ‘approach managerial leadership as a relational, ongoing social construction process rather than as a single clear cut phenomenon’. It is highly relevant in the current environment of advancing technology and rapid globalization where change is an intrinsic part of business dynamics. Lord MacLaurin of Tesco is an exemplary example of dynamic leader whose motivating factor of leadership facilitated adaptability to changing equations to overcome the challenges of fast changing technologies and dynamics of economy (Tesco). Thus organizational leadership becomes the critical element of a firm’s success. 3. Are leaders born or made? The leaders are not pre defined and moulded into certain stature. There may be born leaders but more often leaders are made. Organizational leadership requires skills and competencies that can effectively meet the multifaceted problems of the organization and lead it to success. The dynamics of organizational functions and managerial tasks need to be understood from a wider perspective of human relationship. The leaders facilitate the smooth coordination amongst the various elements of organization to realize organization vision and aims. Therefore, even the persons born with leadership initiatives would need to develop skill to meet the challenges of the changing times. Thus, one can say that leadership qualities and traits are not always inherent but they can be cultivated and polished to achieve exemplary leadership. Indeed, very often, they are the people who may be in the position to influence and motivate others to give their best. Forster (2005) has quoted CEO of Medtronic, William George who asserts that ‘no one is born a leader; we have to consciously develop into the leader we want to become’ (Forster, 2005, p52). The various traits of the leaders are elements of human competencies that can be developed within the people to make them good leaders. 4. Nature Vs Nurture theory of leadership The role of hereditary in the leaders is a question that is still unanswered. But the role of environmental factors in the development of leadership qualities is increasingly being observed in the good leaders. Ridley’s (2003) debate on nature vs nurture is quite expansive and relevant to the discussion of leadership and leaders. He says that nature or genes provide the persons with the fundamental attributes to imbibe from the environment (nurture), the essential ingredients of success like experience of myriad situations to develop into good leaders. It is also true that the various characteristics of effective leadership become the facilitating tools that are used judiciously by leaders to achieve the desired goals. Leadership traits are not enough but the using those traits to improve and improvise the outcome of a situations becomes the critical factor of leadership. This is learnt through experience and the innate sensitivity of the person to understand the issue and make decisions. Thus, theory of nurturing persons into good leaders lends credence to the fact that good leaders are made. 5. Leadership traits Organizational behaviour and culture is important ingredient that nurtures leadership traits amongst its workforce. The various pertinent leadership traits like vision, commitment, effective communication skill, integrity and ethical considerations, perseverance, positive attitude and compassionate nature are tools that empower persons to make right decisions at the right time. These are also the qualities that can be nurtured into core competencies within the person to endow him with exemplary leadership traits. The nurturing of persons into good leaders relies on identifying the important traits and characteristics that can be effectively used by persons to motivate his/ her followers to achieve common goals and objectives. Five of the major characteristics of leadership that can be nurtured are as follows: 5.1 Effective communication skill Good leaders are able to effectively communicate with others and instil confidence. Strong communication skill and intrinsic understanding of human nature become vital factors that inspire change towards the better. Through effective communication and dissemination of information, the leadership promotes empowerment. It is vital for organizational leadership to empower the workforce so that their decision making power is greatly enhanced through exercising informed choices effectively. The identification of various barriers to communication that are detrimental to the organizational effectiveness has become vital for prediction and improvisation in work place. It leads to improved performance. Effective leadership encourages cross cultural understand and promotes mutual trust. Thus, relationship building becomes the vital part of effective communication of leadership skill. 5.2 Leaders are visionary Promoting shared vision is important trait of leadership. McShane (2003) defines a leader as ‘one who has vision, perseverance, and the capacity to inspire others’. Visionary leadership anticipates changes and recognizes the importance of people’s participation in the overall strategy of having collective goals through shared learning. This becomes, especially important in an organization because leaders not only provide an intangible stability among the workforce coming from diverse socio-cultural background and facilitate their integration with the system, but they are also known to promote collective vision of the organization and provide the necessary impetus to the employees to strive towards it. They help facilitate more accommodating approach to the changing dynamics of the organizational scope and processes. Thus shared learning not only provides leaders with the opportunity to promote common goals but also equips them with necessary tool that expands their experience of the intricate nuances of the complexity of human relations. 5.3 Positive attitude and commitment Good leaders are optimistic and build relationships based on mutual trust and confidence which is the main reason that changes are accepted with equanimity. People observe and imbibe qualities that help them to evolve as an individual with strong character. Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, is renowned for his exemplary leadership quality and his innovative approach in the cutthroat business. He reinforces the concept of positive attitude and value based leadership that promotes and facilitates continuous learning (Welsh, 2005). Leaders are also committed to the cause that promotes the welfare of the people. Commitment to organizational goals and objectives is the major trait of organizational leadership. They are also responsible for advocating and nurturing a high standard of ethics and quality work while fostering a good relationship amongst. These qualities form important ingredients of training that people inculcate to become effective leaders who are able to motivate others through self example. 5.4 Integrity, confidence and compassionate Leaders possessing integrity and strong sense of care and empathy are better equipped to inculcate a sense of security within the organization during the changing dynamics of the current business processes. Ashkanasy et al. assert that leaders have ‘the ability to read emotions in one’s self and in others, and to be able to use this information to guide decision-making’ (2002, p.317). It is especially relevant in the context of multi cultural society where it has become imperative to learn to interact with each other without racial prejudice. They learn to develop attitude and behaviour which is conducive for a mutually benefiting and tolerant society. 5.5 Credibility and belief that motivates Credibility of the leaders is one of the most important characteristics that significantly impact his or her followers. The leaders, through self analysis make efforts to learn and acquire necessary information and traits that empowers them to make correct decisions. This helps them to earn credibility and promote goodwill amongst their followers. It encourages the followers to trust them and thereby provides them with versatility and creative inputs to test new approaches with more confidence. This greatly widens the scope and opportunities for the organizations and gives them a competitive advantage in the contemporary business environment. Belief in the leaders promotes a sense of togetherness and collective responsibility that reflects in the increased output and improved performance of the organization. Hence continuous efforts to learn from different situations and act in a manner that reflects responsible behaviour enhances leaders’ credibility amongst various stakeholders. 6. Conclusion Organizational leadership has become extremely significant because the fast changing socio political environment has necessitated the incorporation of rapid improvisation in the cutting edge business environment. The leaders develop into good leaders through experience and by making efforts to understand the human behaviour under different contextual situations. It is imperative that managerial leadership must become part and parcel of organizational culture that promotes leadership traits and empowerment. One can therefore, conclude that effective leadership is an ongoing learning process which is developed through experience and proactive participation of the leaders and the followers. (words 1555) Reference Ashkanasy, N. Hartel, C. and Daus, C. (2002). Diversity and emotion: The new frontiers in organizational behavior research. Journal of management, 28 (3), 307-338. Forster, N. (2005). Maximum Performance: A Practical Guide to Leading and Managing People at Work. Cheltenham, UK: Northampton. McShane. (2003). Leadership and Management. Study guide. Ridley, M. (2003). Nature Via Nurture: Genes, Experience, and What Makes Us Human. New York: Harper Collins. Sjostrand, S and Tyrstrup, M. 2001. ‘Recognized and unrecognized managerial leadership’, in invisible management – The social construction of leadership. S Sjostrand, J Sandberg and M Tyrstrup (eds.). Thomson. pp 1-27. Tesco. Available from: [Accessed 30 June, 2010]. Welch, Jack & Welch, Suzy.(2005). Winning. HarperCollins Publishers. NY. Read More