Leadership: Born or Made - Report Example

Leaders are born not made Leaders are born not made The paper focuses on the discussion whether the leaders are born and not made. The leadership is referred as a process through which an individual influences others in order to accomplish the set objective in the organization. This is through fostering a way that makes a more coherent and cohesive condition. This process is initiated by the leadership attributes like the ethics, character, belief, knowledge and other skills. The issue of leadership is in the field of the discussion as a proxy n the organization. The concept of leadership was initially based on the perception of domain coalition. According to Business Dictionary (2009), leadership refers to as a process in which the social influence that involves a person aiding the others in the pursuit of accomplishing an objective in a common task. The effective leadership is perceived as the ability to integrate available resources either internally or externally, in order to achieve the set objective. Leadership can also be perceived as the process of guiding, motivating and leading a group for the accomplishment of the set objective. A leader is expected to be a person who is reasonable, professional and knowledgeable for making principled decision. The leadership styles differ based on group size. The leader who is heading a large group involves more impersonality. In the other case, the leader that has a relatively smaller group ought to have a closer association with the group members. In order to be considered a legitimate leader, there are other qualities like being communicative, dynamic, compassionate and respectively influential. However, there have been various theories that have been developed to contribute to the debate of leader being born. These theories call upon the inherent and the genetic aspect of leadership. These theories are like the Great man and the Trait Theories. The two theories account that leaders are born not made. However, there is a perception by the Great man theory that the traits of leadership run in the family pedigree. On the other hand, the Trait theory involves the assignment of numbers to the commonly shared characteristics. In my opinion, the leaders can be congenital, but also to some extent, they can also be made. There is a conviction that the leaders are born with the qualities that are necessary for making a charitable leader (Write Work, 2006). There are others with the conviction that there are similar qualities that can be developed through life. The Great man theory suggests that the leaders are born based on the principle that the leaders being exceptional people. The theory also proposes that they are born with innate leadership qualities. There are core parts of individuality that are vital portions of leadership. The theory proposes that the leadership is an inborn capability. However, sometime individuals might be belonging to a certain powerful family and the leadership is passed down. There is also a conviction that inherited leaders may also have the qualities that are required to be a leader, but that does not guarantee that they are going to be outstanding leaders. There is also a conviction that anybody can be a leader either with or without the natural ability to be a leader. The leadership traits are developed by the effort of fostering the abilities. The strengths of becoming a principled leader are within us thus we can all become leaders. Individuals are faced with the predicaments that are aimed at compelling persons to be leaders, thus resulting to them becoming leaders without them knowing that they are now taking the responsibility of being leaders. It is possible for individuals to become leaders through the pragmatic training. Therefore, it is considered possible for individuals to become leaders without having to pay the price. Leadership is referred as the process of influencing a group of individuals towards achieving the organization objective. There is the necessity for the recognizing the distinguished leaders in the modern society. There is the need to have a strong figure in a business or a firm that inspires the role of being followed by others by acting as a role model Bateman, Snell and Scott (2009). There are also the theories of contingency that have the notion that the traits of leadership are passed on with the genetic inheritance. Therefore, the theory focuses on justifying the truth of the motion that a leader is born. There have numerous researches that are aimed at identifying the traits and attributes that a leader should have. This increases the probability to identify the individual that have the potentiality of being a leader. This is to have the effort of promoting them to the position of leadership. The researches for individuals with the potentiality of becoming leaders were based on the Great man theory. The theories suggest that there is personality, physical characteristics and social characteristics. This theory proposed that the individuals were born to become leaders. There are those that are leaders by gene and others that are not. In other cases, others are assigned to lead at the sidelines of the leaders and the leaders make the all the decision. Others have the fear of taking the responsibility of leading and, therefore, the new for the opportunity to lead becomes rather unsettling. Others have the hope of aspiring to be a leader of people, group or teams. The desire to be a leader does not make it possible for one to be an exemplary leader. According to Write Work (2006), there are those that are regarded to be the role models through a close examination. This also involves holding high regards for the once that revel common characteristics of being strong leaders. There is also a desire to lead, motivate, take responsibility and be influential. However, the ability of effective leadership is not due to the natural ability but also due to some other things. These things include the desire to be a leader and the combination of the set of skilled that are learned for the application to be a leader. The most salient attribute that brings about valuable leadership is the ability to lead others and take their responsibility. Therefore, the desire is regarded as the element of leadership that initiates the process of leadership. The rest of the elements can be learnt in order to become an outstanding leader. However, others show a greater ability of leading than others do. There others that have become exemplary leaders through practicing and others become leaders through the myth of inheritance. Nevertheless, there is nothing like the possibility of one individual having the qualities and others having no ability to become leaders. There is a decline in the heredity of leadership in the modern society and there have been substantial role of the model that is present in political leaders and business. There is also the notion of having the dependence on each other that are viewed as leaders in the environment. The question of whether it is possible to train them become valued leaders is present. The idea is the development of the leaders through the skills that are provided to them. This involves the combination of the skills and skills and experiences that are acquired during the work that is assigned to them in the process of training them to be ethical leaders. The idea of giving a chance for the leaders to be developed gives the notion that sets of skills are developed to foster outstanding leadership. After the identification of the characteristics that are not possible to develop, it is substantial for the organization of the talent of the pool of leadership position that is considered critical. The quality that cannot be developed in making of a strong leader gives the question of whether the leaders are made or born. Numerous outstanding leaders have been identified in the twentieth century. Some of these leaders are like Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King. There have been various analyses that are focused on the debate of leaders being born having certain qualities. The common attribute that exist in these leaders is the ability to gather others in a group, and they accept to follow their directives. In order to undertake this complex initiative, there is the need of an intrinsic ability that takes one to be exceedingly strong. There is also the need of the individual who is considered a leader to have personality and oodles of charisma Mind Tools (2006). Different leaders use different means to direct the groups that they are leading. There are other leaders that are analytical and subdued while other being charismatic. However, there are different situations that call for different types of leaders. There is the need of sensitive negotiators to influence the authority that is available in the groups. There is also the notion that the effective leaders have a high degree of emotional intelligence. The emotional intelligence is required at highest leadership level, in the organization. The individual can have a lot of training, ample supply of brilliant ideas and the required incentive of the mind but still fail to make a strong leader. Other things are elements that exist in the good leaders like self-regulation, motivation, empathy and the social skills though they sound to be un-business like they are also crucial for the leadership. The ability of a leader to exhibit the emotional intelligence during their working duration has focusses on the ability to have control over individual anger, or how to get along with people. It also elaborates the ways of understanding others emotions in a way that it is possible to influence them for the direction to the achievement of the organization objective. There are other factors of emotional intelligence required by leaders to enhance the ability to recognize the potentiality in leaders. This will result to measurable business results. This is through showing examples of the potential readers in the business. However, this takes time and commitment. There are certain benefits that are associated by the ability of the leader to have a well-established emotional intelligence, with the effort of both the organization and the individual. By the fact that the leader is an individual with the ability to influence others, there is the need for the leaders to have a way that foster the best spirits in others and the managerial authority. The other thing is the ability to take on other’s responsibility. This is in terms of getting the consequences of leadership at the actions of the individuals that are being lead. There are also various challenges that are involved in leadership especially in the course of guiding others. This also involves a clear definition between success and failure. The challenges are in terms of morale of the employees, the organization behavior and the environmental factors. The style of leadership is a determining factor to the ability of the individual to be a leader. There is a substantial need for the organization to determine when the organizations need a reliable leader. Times requiring, a devoted reader includes, when there is a non-routine task that has a requirement of innovative thinking. The leadership is also needed when there is a need to inspire others in order to engage in a given task with the aim of achieving the organizational goal (Spurgeon and Cragg, 2008). The other situation is the establishment of momentum that is required for the progression of things towards a given direction. The other situation involves the availabilities of individuals with certain abilities that are beyond the current process of developing the vision for the long-term objective of the organization. There are certain divisions of leadership that is in terms of supervisory and strategic. The supervisory leadership involves the possession of the behaviors in a way that they provide guidance, correct feedback and the required support to the group or team. On the other hand, the strategic leader has the behavior for giving the purpose and meaning for the envisioning and creation of a positive future. There are examples of exemplary business leadership that is evident through the companies like Wal-Mart as it expanded; Sam acquired the pilot’s license that would enable him to get to the individual stores with a reduction of the time used to travel. This was in the focus of visiting his stores in order to keep in touch with his business associates (Frank, 2006). Conclusively, according to the evaluation of various issues, a leader can be born and made through training, which equips them with the necessary skills that are necessary for practicing exemplary leadership. Therefore, what matters are the attitude and the desire to lead people and to take their responsibility? This gives the employees the confidence in the leader. References Bateman, Thomas S., & Snell, Scott A. (2009). Management: Leading and collaborating in the competitive world (8th Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Business Dictionary. (2009).Leadership. Retrieved January 05, 2009, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/leadership.html Frank, T. (2006) A Brief History of Wal-Mart. Washington Monthly, Reclaim Democracy. Retrieved December 29, 2008 from: http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/walmart/2006/history.php Mind Tools. (2006).Leadership styles, using the right one for your situation. Retrieved December 29, 2008 from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_84.htm Spurgeon, P and Cragg, R. (2008). Is it Management or Leadership? Clinician in Management, 15:123-125. Write Work. (2006). Leaders are born not made: Looking into Leadership Theories. Retrieved on 11 March 2012 from < http://www.writework.com/essay/leaders-born-not-made-looking-into-leadership-theories> Read More