Are leaders Born or Made?

Are leaders born or made? This is a debate as timeless as the

question Which came first: the chicken or the egg?

Some people think leaders are bornthey naturally possess the

social intelligence and charisma that motivates others to work
together. Others believe that leaders are made ,they build their skills
with practice, experience and mentoring.

So which is it,born or made?

It turns out that both camps are right. Researchers have found
that leaders come by their talents partly through genetics but mostly
through hard work and persistence. In fact, one study from The
Leadership Quarterly1 on heritability (that is, the innate skills you
bring to the table) and human development (what you learn along the
way) estimated that leadership is 24 percent genetic and 76 percent
learned.

Leaders are made not born: Behavioral Theories believe that

people can become leaders through the process of teaching, learning
and observation. Leadership is a set of skills that can be learned by
training, perception, practice and experience over
time. Leadership learning is lifetime activity

Great Man theory and Trait theories believe that people inherit
certain qualities and traits that make them better suited to leadership.

To suggest that leaders do not enter the world with extraordinary

endowment is to imply that people enter the world with equal abilities,
with equal talents. (Thomas Carlyle 1840)

There are certain inborn characteristics that predispose people

to be and become leaders. There is a significant difference
between learning a skill and mastering one, in the same way that
others are born with amazing musical gifts or athletic talents. They
will excel naturally in these areas but others would be like a fish out of
water and may struggle to get to the same point.
 Born (natural) Leaders are different to made (artificial
leaders). All remarkable leaders have great history behind them.
They were leaders from the onset of their journey.

If leaders were solely born what is the point of the rest of us

studying leadership or management?

Birth is a natural process and the notion to associate leadership with

it is arguable.

If it takes more than a winning personality to rally people

around you toward a common goal, maybe its time to finally put
aside the debate over whether great leaders are born or made. Yes,
genetics may give some people a faster start out of the gate. But as
the old saying goes, Its not what youve been given but what you do
with it that matters.

Bottom line: Leadership isnt a race; its a marathon that is run

in stages throughout a career. It doesnt matter how a leader comes
by his or her skill. There is no such thing as a perfect leader or a one-
size-fits-all way to lead. What matters is that you possess the
requisite skills for the job and that you are willing to apply those skills
for the benefit of those you lead. Fortunately, thats something each
of us can learn.

At birth, we are all born with genetic baggage, for a select few
the genetic predispositions for the leadership qualities are more
favourable toward leadership qualities. For the majority, these genetic
predispositions are not as prominent within their genetic baggage, but
nonetheless, these qualities are there. Perhaps, for the others that
don't have any predisposition being a leader will never be part of their
being!

After we are born for the first few years of our lives we are in constant
interaction with others, some to which we attach real and sustained
admiration and others where this admiration is punctual. From those
interactions we refine our values and our natural behaviours are
reinforced positively, which would increase the frequency of the
behaviours or negatively which would diminish the
frequency of the behaviours. I'm sure that we can appreciate that
these interactions and the possibilities of their outcomes are so
complex that this topic would require it own book. But for the purpose
of this article we will let your objective imagination run wild and juggle
with the different scenarios.

What's important to realize,Is that whatever was genetically

given to us at birth, will, by our social interactions be reinforced in a
manner that the behavioural patterns will be more or less in line with
those of a leader. Where the complexity comes in, is that some those
that had a strong predisposition towards leadership qualities could
now be in a position that would render them less likely to actually
express those behaviours because of the social conditioning. So, if
the answer to the question "Are Leaders Born or Made" is that we are
born, then that would mean that our social interactions would have
the "power" to condition us otherwise? Logically, if this is the case,
then we could also, by the means of our social interactions, be
morphed into a great leader!

Lastly, depending on the combination of both our genetic and

our socially conditioned behaviours we will be more or less inclined to
have the proper leadership abilities in a given context. In fact, in my
professional and personal life I have had the luxury of meeting and
interacting with amazing leaders. For a select few, I have seen them
in various contexts, where I have observed in those situations, that
their leadership qualities didn't have the same intensity within the
various situations and in some cases they really expressed more
follower qualities.
 Leadership is often a Choice. A leader is a person who comes
forward to take the challenge. If a leader rises up from the multitude,
then that person was already a leader to begin with. Should someone
have all the best training, nurturing and opportunities, but would
rather be hidden in the crowd, an unwilling participant...not a leader.

Leadership styles varies with maturity, followers and

situations.So I think leaders are born and not made.