Leaders-born or made?

 

 My honest opinion is that: Leaders are made not born:

It is evident that leadership could be described as a set of skills that can be learned by training, practice and experience over a period of time. Behavioral Theories perpetuate that people can become leaders through teaching, learning and observation Thomas Egner,2009. Leadership as a learning process is a lifetime activity  as stated by Vince Lombard  ‘Like anything and everything in the world, leaders are also created by hard work, time, and a lot of creativity and talent.’ A leader is molded through time together with passion, effort and energy Ronald,A  & Marty Linsky,2014. For instance, training a kid to be a good leader starts in teaching the kid to be a good follower first . The mentors seek out learning opportunities that will help them learn new skills. Research by psychologists has proved that leaders are ‘mostly made.' A World leadership survey of 361 people at the top level of their respective organizations found that 52.4% of those surveyed believed that leaders are made, with only 19.1% believing that leaders are born and 28.5% of the opinion that leaders are both born and made .The ability to  lead effectively, motivate and direct  people requires a complex set of skills, mostly acquired through experiences, self development a follow up on many subsequent trainings. While some may be born with attributes  like confidence, communication and creativity, I still argue that great leaders are made not born. While one may be born with certain traits and talents, only through carefully developing of those skills and talents can one learn to master the art of leadership as it takes practice.  

A leader is molded through time together with passion, effort and energy. To develop great people skills, potential leaders need to learn how to become better listeners, how to accept critical feedback in a constructive way, and how to best display empathy and patience with others. Confidence is also a huge part of leadership, and is a trait you can practice and perfect over time. We can exercise this through becoming more decisive in our work and personal lives, learning more about our industry so we become knowledge experts, and building our own success rather than waiting for others to hand it to us.

Additionally, responsibility and integrity are very important leadership skills to have, although no one is born knowing how to be responsible. Integrity in itself is also a choice. Becoming more responsible and acting with integrity is achieved through accepting blame when something goes wrong, taking charge on solving difficult problems, and learning how to stay calm and troubleshoot when things do not go as planned.

In conclusion ,my take is that leaders are made and effectiveness develops with time like in any other area of our lives.