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Are leaders born or made?

For centuries people have debated whether leaders are born or made.
Several decades ago researchers started trying to answer the
question. The debate goes on, even though we know the answer.

It turns out to be a little of both. Leaders are sort of born and they're
always made. Knowing the details will help you develop effective
leaders for your company.

Leaders are Sort of Born

It seems like there's only one thing that a person needs to actually be
born with in order to be a leader later in life. That's intelligence. A
leader needs to be smart enough.

Effective leaders aren't necessarily the smartest people in the room or

the company or even on the team. But they have to be smart enough
to do the job they're assigned.

What's more important is what kind of person the potential leader is

when he or she becomes an adult. The person who emerges from
adolescence into young adulthood has the psychological and character
traits they'll demonstrate for the rest of their life. Some of those
matter for leadership.

By the time a person becomes an adult we can tell if they can help
other people achieve results. That, after all, is what we expect leaders
to do. We expect them to achieve success through a group. We
expect them to help their subordinates grow and develop.

By the time a person becomes an adult, we can tell if they want to

achieve objectives or if they just want to go along and take it easy.
We expect leaders to be responsible for achieving results. You can
have a marvelous life without a results focus, but if you're going to
lead successfully you have to have the drive and willingness to be
measured by the results of your leadership.

By the time a person becomes an adult, we can tell if they are willing
to make decisions or not. Lots of people wake up every day and let
the world happen to them. But leaders must be able and willing to
make decisions that affect themselves and others.
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By the time a person becomes an adult we can tell if they have the
basic qualities that we expect leaders to have. We can determine if
they're smart enough to do the job. We can tell if they are willing to
help others to achieve results as a group. And we can tell if they will
make decisions.

Those things are essential. People who have them can learn the
multiple skills it takes for them to become effective leaders.

No matter how they measure up on the key essentials, no one

emerges from the womb or from adolescence with all the skills in place
to be an effective leader. Everybody has to learn the job. That's why
leaders are always made.

Leaders are Always Made

Leadership can be learned by anyone with the basics. But an awful lot
of leadership cannot be taught.

That's because leadership is an apprentice trade. Leaders learn about

80 percent of their craft on the job.

They learn from watching other leaders and emulating their behavior.
They choose role models and seek out mentors. They ask other
leaders about how to handle situations.

Leaders improve by getting feedback and using it. The best leaders
seek feedback from their boss, their peers and their subordinates.
Then they modify their behavior so that they get better results.

Leaders learn by trying things out and then critiquing their

performance. The only failure they recognize is the failure to learn
from experience.

In their book, Geeks and Geezers, Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas
identify the special power of what they call "crucibles." These are trials
which teach hard lessons that leaders use as the basis of their strength
in later crises. Many of these events can be called "failures," but
leaders turn the bad situation to good by learning from it.

Effective leaders take control of their own development. They seek out
training opportunities that will make a difference that will make a
difference in their performance.
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Effective leaders look for training programs that will help them develop
specific skills that they can use on the job. Then, they when they
return to work, they devote specific, deliberate effort to mastering in
real life what they learned in the classroom.

Marshall Goldsmith and Howard Morgan studied the progress of 88,000

managers who had been to leadership development training. The
people who returned from the training, talked about it, and did
deliberate work to apply their learning were judged as becoming more
effective leaders. The ones who didn't showed no improvement.

If you're responsible for leadership development for your company,

you should structure your support for your leaders to recognize that
most leadership learning happens on the job. Help people develop
leadership development plans. Help them select specific skills training
and then work on transferring skills from the training to the job. Help
them find role models, mentors and peers to discuss leadership issues.

Help your leaders get feedback from their boss, peers and
subordinates. Work to create the culture of candor that will make that
feedback helpful and effective.

Don't stop there. Make sure that you evaluate your leaders on their
leadership work. Reward them and hold them accountable for
accomplishing the mission through the group. And hold them
accountable for caring for their people and helping them grow and
develop.

A Leader's Growth is Never Done

Leadership learning is a lifetime activity. You're never done because

there's always more to learn. There are always skills you need to
improve.

Effective leaders seek out development opportunities that will help

them learn new skills. Those might be project assignments or job
changes. What they have in common is that the leader develops
knowledge and skills that can be used elsewhere.

Effective leaders also seek out opportunities that will increase their
visibility. The fact is that great performance alone will not propel you
to the top in your career. You also have to be visible to people who
make decisions about promotions and assignments.
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If you're responsible for developing leaders in your company, set up

programs to give your leaders both kinds of development opportunities
over the course of their careers.

There's no magic formula for developing quality leaders in your

company. But if you select potential leaders with the essential traits,
then support them with training, feedback, on-the-job learning and
development experiences and hold them accountable for results, you'll
have the leaders you need to shape your company's future.

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Wally Bock has helped people learn to be great bosses for more than a
quarter century. His latest book, Performance Talk: The One-on-One
Part of Leadership, makes learning key leadership principles almost
effortless by teaching through a story and providing lists of resources
for further growth.

http://blog.threestarleadership.com/2007/06/22/are-leaders-born-or-made.aspx

Are Great Leaders Born or Made?AuthorAlyssa Gregory

Department
WEB PRO BUSINESS

ome people believe that leaders are born with the necessary qualities that make
them successful as a leader. While others believe that leadership, like many
other similar characteristics, can be learned and developed through life. For me,
I think much of the debate depends on how you define leadership.

Defining Leadership

Let’s assume leadership means having an ability and desire to inspire and
influence others. Based on that definition, I can certainly see the argument that
leaders are born with leading qualities when I see my daughter using her
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inherent ability to influence her little brother (and sometimes her parents) to do
the things she wants them to do.

If leadership means being courageous and willing to speak out for the
betterment of those around you, I would think that leaders do not have to be
born as such. I have seen people who consider themselves introverts and overall
followers become successful leaders when faced with an issue they are
passionate about.

If we define leadership as having atypical intelligence, creativity and/or drive,

then I am back to believing that it’s a trait you’re born with, although you may
or may not continue to develop that trait through your life.

So what does all this mean?

Anyone Can Be a Leader

We all have areas of our lives where we have talent and propensity for success.
If this is also an area you feel passionate about, you may exude qualities that
are absent from other areas of your life. So while you may not be a natural born
leader in the strictest sense, you can certainly overcome many obstacles and
develop a desire and ability to lead when you are inspired to do so.

Let’s look at an example.

Say you are an animal lover, and you volunteer for an animal rescue group in
your free time. The group is planning a huge fundraiser but lacks the direction
necessary to execute it effectively. Without a leader in place, the event is
destined for failure. You may not be completely comfortable talking in front of
others, making decisions for a group and managing others, but you feel so
strongly about the need for the fundraiser that you are willing to overcome these
challenges. With the support of several volunteers who are experienced in
various areas (marketing, event planning, community outreach, etc.), and your
knowledge of the group and the background of the fundraiser, you successfully
manage the group and event. Possible? Absolutely.

Developing Leadership

Aside from having a passion that translates into action, there are several ways
you can develop your own leadership skills:

• Work on improving your communication ability, especially your ability to

listen to others
• Be willing to take risks
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• Network and look for ways to expand your contacts

• Focus on working and living with integrity and respect for others
• Encourage those around you to find their own leadership qualities
• Be confident in yourself and your abilities
• Know your strengths and be ready to ask for support in areas where you
are lacking
• Create a vision and share your vision to inspire others
• Think positively and commit to reaching your goals
Whttp://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/07/16/are-great-leaders-born-or-
made/hat do you think? Are leaders born or made?

LEADERS: Born or Made?

The State of Leadership Theory and Training Today

Daniel E. Maltby, Ph.D.

Are leaders born or made? This question continues to dominate the study of leadership
today. Volumes of research have been written. But there is little to no conclusive
evidence either way. The topic of leadership remains elusive.

However, some of the contributing factors or origins of leadership have become clearer
with 50 years or more of study. While no predictive model exists, we know something
about "what leads to leadership."

One difficulty in discussing the topic is definition. Burt Nanus and Warren Bennis report
some three hundred and fifty definitions of "leadership" that leadership researchers have
generated over the last thirty years. Jay Conger follows John Kotter's lead by defining
leadership with three dimensions:

Leaders are individuals who establish direction for a working group of individuals, who
gain commitment from these group members to this direction, and who then motivate
these members to achieve the direction's outcomes.

This definition is broad enough to allow for a wide variety of leader behavior. For
example, setting direction can range from establishing strategic direction for the
corporation to setting daily production goals for a team or individuals. Secondly, a leader
need not exercise all three elements to be a leader in the eyes of others. Leaders can be
found all over organizations fulfilling one or all of these roles.

Developing some clarity about the "born-or-made?" debate is essential to a discussion of

leadership training. The current consensus is that it is both. In a majority of cases,
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genetics and early family experiences play the significant role in developing the
personality and character needs that motivate the individual to lead. They also contribute
to the development of the intellectual and interpersonal skills necessary to lead.

But the majority of researchers today believe that the origins of leadership go beyond
genes and family to other sources. Work experiences, hardship, opportunity, education,
role models and mentors all go together to craft a leader. An important assumption in this
theory is that the raw material essential in people in order to lead is not scarce. The lack
of needed leaders is a reflection of neglected development, rather than a dearth of
abilities.

Current research suggests that experiences on the job play an important catalytic role in
unlocking leader behavior. There seems to be no substitute for learning through doing,
making mistakes and improving with time. Kotter surveyed two hundred executives at
highly successful companies and interviewed twelve individuals in depth. He concluded
that early in their careers his leaders had opportunities to lead, to take risks and to learn
from their successes and failures. He specifically identified the following as important
developmental opportunities: (1) challenging assignments early in a career, (2) visible
leadership role models who were either very good or very bad, (3) assignments that
broadened knowledge and experience, (4) task force assignments, (5) mentoring or
coaching from senior executives, (6) attendance at meetings outside a person's core
responsibility, (7) special development jobs (executive assistant jobs, (8) special projects,
and (9) formal training programs.

From these studies certain types of work experiences emerge as the primary
developmental forces behind leadership. For example, challenging and multi-functional
work assignments taught self-confidence, toughness, persistence, knowledge of the
business, skill in managing relationships, a sense of independence, and leadership.
Hardship taught personal limits and strengths, while success bred confidence and an
understanding of one's distinct skills. Diversity in experiences developed breadth and
different bosses modeled values and taught key lessons. This mix set the stage for
leadership ability to take hold.

Opportunity cannot be overlooked. Frequently circumstances beyond all of the players'

control led to opportunity for leadership to emerge.

Thus, leadership must still be understood as a complex equation of birth and early
childhood factors, shaped by later life experiences and opportunity.

Conger and others in the "leadership is learned" (to some degree) school see opportunity
in two lights. There is the opportunity of unforseeable circumstances mentioned above
and there is the opportunity that can be designed and managed by those responsible for
leader development. But he cautions that the best designed programs of leadership
development - whatever their structure or intensity - are contingent on the motivational
desire of the candidates. It appears that many gifted leaders choose not to lead when
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given the opportunity. The price is too great, the timing not right, the rewards too small
and they settle for something else.

Elements of leadership can be taught. But to be successful, training must be designed to

(1) develop and refine certain of the teachable skills, (2) improve the conceptual abilities
of managers, (3) tap individuals' personal needs, interests, and self-esteem, and (4) help
managers see and move beyond their interpersonal blocks.

The leadership training programs now available throughout the U.S. (and the world) can
be broken down into a similar four emphases. Each of the leading companies providing
leadership development seems to emphasize one of the following four factors over the
others (though all tend to include some aspects of the other three as well): (1) leadership
skills development, (2) conceptual thinking, (3) personal growth experiences, or (4)
feedback.

Biola University's M.A. in Organizational Leadership is designed to incorporate all four

of these leadership development emphases while it focuses on those elements of
leadership that can most effectively be taught in a highly dynamic university setting.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE MOL CONTACT:

Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership Dept.
School of Professional Studies, Biola University
[email protected]
(562) 906-4571

Footnotes

1 W.G. Bennis and B. Nanus, Leaders: The Strategies of Taking Charge (San Francisco:
HaperCollins, 1985).

2 J. Conger, Learning to Lead, (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1992), 33.

3 W.M. McCall, M.M. Lombardo, and A.M. Morrison, The Lessons of Experience
(Lexington, Mass: Lexington Press, 1988), 3-5.

4 J.P. Kotter, A Force for Change: How Leadership Differs from Management (New
York: Free Press, 1990), 124-125.

5 Ibid, Conger. http://www.biola.edu/academics/professional-

studies/leadership/resources/leadership/bornormade/