Are Leaders More Successful or Can They be Trained - Essay Example

?Are leaders more successful or can they be trained? Introduction Rapidly developing world requires a fundamentally different approach to the question of leadership. The role of a leader has become essential in an organization’s effectiveness. Creative, innovative and inspirational leadership is increasingly recognized as the keys to corporate success. Organizations are becoming multicultural, people are sharing a global language and a global medium of communications, as technology is booming, small-connected world and changes are faster than ever now. Leaders need to be up to date with tendencies. “To be an effective leader of emerging organizations in the global world one will need to see the world and the workforce with a global mindset” (Marquardt & Berger 2000). However, to achieve such goals they must have broader skills and trait sets that allow them to think and act globally. Such traits are charisma, creativity, flexibility, achievement drive, motivation, honesty, integrity, self-confidence, cognitive ability and emotional stability (Elliot, 1994). Nevertheless, there is an issue that always arises when we are trying to understand the nature of the leaders. Are such skills and traits inherited or any of us can be trained to become a leader? Are leaders born? This controversial issue has been an object of study for centuries. There are many theories that suggest that to become an authentic leader, one has to be born with a distinct set of personal characteristics. Such as ‘The great man theory of leadership’ that became very popular since the 19th century. Many historians and scientists examined this theory. “Effective leaders are those gifted with divine inspiration and the right characteristics.” This theory is based on the study of people who were already world’s legendary leaders such us Abraham Lincoln, Julius Caesar, Mahatma Gandhi, and Alexander the Great (Bass, 1990). The conception of Traits Theory of Leadership also suggests that leaders are given special qualities that separate them from their followers. The leadership is defined in terms of traits of personality and character. To be even more precise, (Bird 1940) compiled a list of seventy-nine such attributes, from twenty psychological oriented studies (Bass, 1990). People declared as leaders, or sometimes even as heroes, presented features like superior intelligence, physical strength, moral force, charisma, self-confidence and an unbelievable desire to succeed. Those divine virtues given to them, enabled born leaders to stand out from the masses and achieve great things, regardless of setting or situation (Bass, 1990). Many scientists also consider the phenomena of leadership as the set of the right qualities or personality that are innate. The ability to lead is directly linked to one's personality. Moreower, there is a special brain chemistry between leaders and followers. The high levels of serotonin appear to promote leadership (Cawthon, 2006). Numerous contemporary studies have revealed that genes affect a variety of leadership abilities. The innate qualities influence your attitude toward leadership, your willingness to take leadership role and even what kind of leader a person might become. Some portion of your attitude toward leadership is hidden in your DNA. Through many studies, we know that genetics accounts for about 40 percent of the difference between people in what they think of leadership. The same genetic predispositions that accounted for our ancestors’ interest to heading up the hunting party or running the clan, it seems, the same happens today, affecting our lives in modern organizations (Shane, 2010). Professor Scott Shane (2010, pp.122-123) also suggests that the DNA influences whether you move up in your company or not. Because people tend to engage in behaviors that they are good at, those with the genes that predispose them to develop leadership potential are more likely to move toward leadership roles. Genes influence whether you become a leader through your personality traits, social potency, temperament, intelligence and cognitive abilities. Leadership Development However, your DNA does not guarantee whether you become a good leader or not. It might give you a predisposition to be good at developing certain personality traits and skills (Shane, 2010). The genes alone are not sufficient to turn those with the genetic make up offering leadership potential into successful leaders. One of the very necessary ingredients to becoming an effective leader is to have a desire to learn (Cawthon, 2006). Developing is the key that unlocks the hidden leadership gateway. It is the result of continuously learning through life's experiences, coupled with reflective practice taking a hard look at oneself in the context of those experiences. It is a practice of reflecting upon one's experiences, usually facilitated by experts, which produces leaders who produce results (Garic, 2006). Many studies suggest that only through reflective practice, people become leaders. 'Becoming a good leader is as much about reflecting on the situations and approaches that you've experienced in the past, and deriving from the clarity in your own mind about the vision and the direction that you believe is appropriate for your organization and the people that you are leading’. The leadership skills cannot be taught but they can be learnt only (Hargreaves, 2011). It cannot happen overnight. Leadership abilities are aproached only through life long learning and experiance. Hence, it is clear that parental, school and university education are also significantly influential towards the formation of a leader's traits in person. Factors such as participation in activities such as sports, journalism, drama and music provide opportunities for learning about negotiation, teamwork, motivation and leadership. The environment is one of the most important parameter that forms the leadership behavior (Bartone, 2007). Barry Maude in his book “Leadership Management” identifies various ways and means of developing leaders. In between different methods of leadership development, Maude recognized this list of ways to increase potential leadership abilities of managers. Participation in task forces, working parties, committees and junior management boards; special assignments and projects; job rotation systematic coaching by the boss; performance appraisal program; formal management training programs; advanced training programs, such as those offered by the business schools, and inter-company programs (Maude, 1978). There are many more methods, courses and ways to develop leadership skills, the methods vary from one another depending on what aspects we want to improve in a future leader. We can concentrate our attention towards developing personal characteristics or focus on the skills needed in the business world. Leadership development practice has become specially crucial during the past decade due to the era of globalization. Effective leadership now cannot be based only on your leadership abilities and skills that have been achieved and developed by the way it was done before. Global business requires making decisions in complex or ambiguous environments. “The changing face of organizations, an increasingly competitive and global world economy, and rapid changes in demographic trends are posing great challenges to management” (Ayoko and Hartel, 2006). The world is becoming ?atter. With this increasing ?attening, is the fact that to effectively conduct business in this new world will require a different kind of leader than ever before. A leader who will not only have to be generally effective in the traditional skills expected but also with additional knowledge, skills and above all mindset to navigate through the complexities brought on by moving beyond one’s traditional borders (Cohen, 2010). Innovation, vision, flexibility, effective communication and understanding of cultural differences are the skills that are obviously not given to us by genes. Hence a ‘born leader’ cannot exist in terms of current reality. The leadership training programs must be reviewed according to the changing business environment. Many who have studied global leadership, as well as leadership development in general, have concluded that a multi-dimensional approach is the most effective way to developing effective global leadership. These methods comprise of four approaches: examination - involves introspection and self-awareness; education - involves thinking about the subject of globalization, culture and leadership; experience - experience involves acting or doing; exposure - exposure involves interacting by focusing on people and roles (Cohen, 2010). Conclusion It is wrong to choose whether leaders are born or they can be trained only. In fact, the answer lies somewhere between these two definitions. Without a doubt, leadership does have a strong genetic component. Our genes determine our attitudes toward leadership, our leadership abilities, our willingness to adopt leadership roles and even the kind of leaders that we can become. Innate skills in isolation do not explain a leader’s success, as they interact with the social antecedent environment and situational factors influence leader’s behavior. Regardless of the innate traits potential leaders might have, without the emergence of situational forces, they will never become leaders. Moreover, the present global corporate environment imposes a significant imprint on the development of leadership on the whole. Regardless of whether you were born with leadership predisposition or not, it is simply not enough to cope with modern leadership issues. Potential and training is a powerful combination in developing the leadership that is necessary to meet the challenges of rapidly changing global world. But, it should be mentioned that it is virtually impossible to develop talents that you do not have at all (Cawthon, 2006). References 1. Ayoko, O.B., Hartel, C.E.J. 2006. Cultural diversity and leadership: A conceptual model of leader intervention in conflict events in culturally heterogeneous workgroups.Cross Cultural Management, Vol. 13 No. 4, p. 345. 2. Bartone, P.T., Snook, S.A., Forsythe, G.B., Lewis, P. and Bullis, R.C. 2007. Psychosocial developmentand leader performance of military of?cer cadets.Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 18 No. 5, pp. 490-505. 3. Bass, B.M. 1990. Stodgill’s Handbook of Leadership: theory, research, and manageral applications. London: Collier Macmillan 4. Cawthon, D.L. 1996. Leadership: The Great Man Theory revisited. Business Horizons, , Vol. 39 Issue 3, pp.1-4. 5. Cohen S.L. 2010. Effective global leadership requires a global mindset. Industrial and Commercial Training. Vol. 42 Issue 1, pp.3-10. 6. Elliott, J. 1994. Executive Leadership. A Practical Guide to Managing Complexity. Wiley-Blackwell. 7. Garic D. 2006. Are leaders born or made? Supervision, Vol. 67 Issue 12, pp.19-20. 8. Hargreaves, B. 2011. Born or Made? Professional Engineering, Vol. 24 Issue 4, pp. 57-58. 9. Marquardt M.J., Berger N.O. 2000. Global Leaders for the Twenty-First Century. State University of New York Press. 10. Maude B. 1978. Leadership in Management. Scotland: Business Books. 11. Shane S. 2010. Born Entrepreneurs, Born Leaders: How Your Genes Affect Your Work Life. Oxford University Press. Read More