Leaders are born or made?
The phrase “natural born leader” is a pervasive belief that leadership is an innate skill
for some people and not for others. Referring to the term of starting from scratch, there is no
law of nature saying that we are born as a leader. Everything in life since day 1 starts like an
empty sketchbook and that’s how we design, sketch and shape a person to be a leader. We
cannot expect that a person to be born with all the tools and credentials needed to lead based
on complexity of social group and processes. I strongly believe that leaders are made and not
born. A leader can be described as a person who influences a big group or an individual in an
organization, assists and guiding followers to achieve and establish their organization vision,
mission and goals (Valiappan, 2019). Leaders and leadership styles are a choice where a
person march forward to take the step and challenge.
First and foremost, leaders influence their surroundings in many ways and in company
leaders impact work satisfaction, commitment and engagement (Gozali, 2020). Meanwhile in
school, leaders affect student behaviour and learning outcomes. Why leaders are made
because there is an existence of leader development where it examines practices and
programs to expand the leadership capacities of youngsters and adults within the
organizational settings. In this context, leader identity should be enforced and act as an
important component of the leader development process to identify the developmental
opportunities and experiences to improve their abilities as a leader (Eva, 2019). An actual
development events such as leadership programs, workshops and seminars are now
becoming equally important to examine how leaders and leader-related skills can be nurtured
throughout the generation.
Apart from that, The Great Person and Trait theory also had identified a cluster of traits
under six major traits constellation and these traits are able to distinguish leaders from nonleaders namely drive, leadership motivation, honesty and integrity, self-confidence, cognitive
ability and knowledge of the business. Vital learners in any organization are the leaders and
this means that leaders can be taught and developed through processes such as training and
development. Business organization in this challenging time is constantly changing and
shifting upwards with new challenges, technologies, market demands and competition
(Valiappan, 2019). In this issue, leadership style also comes into action and act as a critical
success factor that motivate, guide and influence members of organization to enhance and
boost their performance. Thus, genuine leadership is a unique stressors and traits to enhance
organizations effectiveness of a leader in managing the whole business.
Last but not least, being a leader is not just about to influence or have followers, ideally,
leadership is about encouraging a positive development of not only willingness to work, but
also willingness to work with clarity, zeal and confidence (Valiappan, 2019). The ability to
influence is one of the tools needed to be a leader, be it knowledge or experience-wise
manner. In this context, The Great Person and Trait theory will be considered in strengthening
the statement of leaders are made not born. This theory premised on genetic makeup and
architecture of a leader and how it is characteristically different with others (Udofia, 2020).
Udofia had also mentioned that genes determined the traits and natural propensities while
traits of leaders are different from those. This theory had classified the different trait factors
which found to be associated with leadership under five broad trait categories such as
capacity, achievement, responsibility, participation and status. These traits emphasized in the
theory to differentiate and oppose the argument on leaders are born not made. Therefore, the
most prominent factor of this theory is to highlight that leaders possess characteristics which
are different from non-leaders whereby they are characterized by a strong drive of
responsibility, task of completion, vigour and persistence in pursuit of goals, originality in
problem solving, self-confidence and sense of personal identity.
In conclusion, leadership qualities are not hereditary, innate, inherent and naturally
endowed. Leaders are made but not born may lead to a never-ending argument but as an
individual as we grow up, we shape ourselves and act as a leader in our own life. A well
targeted education and learning enforcement towards an individual can enhanced their
leadership capabilities thus producing great leaders for themselves and the community. I
strongly believe that leaders are made because we nurtured, learn and design our own path
of life same as the concept of leader who invest themselves in building characteristics, traits
and tools needed to be a leader.
Reference
Adnan, S. N., & Valliappan, R. (2019). Communicating shared vision and leadership styles
towards enhancing performance. International Journal of Productivity and Performance
Management, 68(6), 1042-1056.
Udofia, C. A. (2020). Are Leaders Born or Made? A Disquisition on The Great Person and
Christological Paradigms of Leadership. Great Person Theory of Leadership, II(II), 25821962, 1-5.
Eva, N., Cieri, H. D., Murphy, S. E., & Lowe, K. B. (2020). Leader development for
adolescent girls: State of the field and a framework for moving forward. The Leadership
Quarterly, 101457.
Ghozali, C. (2020). From Early Childhood to Adulthood: Leader Development in Indonesia,
1-24.