Leaders Are Born or Made - Essay Example

From the psychological and behavioral perspective, a leader is born because many of the successful leaders became leaders even without any training or education and made as well because his life experiences mold him to be a good leader. Borman, Ilgen, and Klimoski (2003, 290) observed that there have recently been immense amounts of investment in management and leadership training from governments and corporations, but there is little evidence that such training directly results in ineffective management. It is because only 10 percent of all the leadership training programs are evaluated to be beyond the satisfaction of the participants. It is one of the main reasons why it is argued that leadership cannot be fully developed, but it can be developed more successfully in those who have inherently gained some leadership traits and qualities.

            As Weinberg and Gould (2010, p. 205) stressed, leaders have a variety of personality traits. There is no specific trait that makes all leaders great and successful. According to their views, leadership is often influenced by traits, but there is no specific trait that makes one great leader. Strongman (2006, p. 122) found that psychologists in the early years of the 1990s put together the idea that leaders are born. they believed that leadership is a matter of having various traits and these traits are inherited. But later, these views are questioned by the psychologists arguing that there are great leaders, who don’t possess leadership traits as inherited from parents but have later become successful leaders.

            Leadership is basically a high-valued behavioral commodity that the leader influences others to do what he wants them to do. It is not only getting things done through others but also influencing them and making a positive zeal among them. Most of the leaders such as prophets or greater personalities in history made changes through their influence on the people. The most successful leaders are transformational leaders and they have charisma in their leadership ability. But there are leaders who have become great businessmen and successful managers as well as leaders through regular training and education programs. A leader, who inherits leadership qualities and gets trained will be able to become a highly successful leader than one who becomes the leader through either inheritance or training.