Are leaders born or made? Leadership is a complex and sophisticated social role. The eternal question of whether leaders are born or made has been around since time without beginning. Although certain qualities do predispose some people to attain leadership positions and be better at leading, effective leaders actually hone their skills through experience, conscious self-development, education, and training. The best estimates offered by research is that leadership is about one-third born and two-thirds made.
Studies suggest that there is some “raw material,” some inborn characteristics that predispose people to be and become leaders. Extraversion is consistently associated with obtaining leadership positions and leader effectiveness.
There is also some evidence that being bold, assertive, or risk-taking can be advantageous for leaders. Leaders also need to be smart to analyze situations and figure out courses of action.
So, intelligence is associated with leadership; perhaps not general IQ, but social intelligence – understanding of social situations and processes – is the component of intelligence that is important for leadership. Finally, some sort of empathy, or ability to know followers, is also advantageous for leaders.
Latest research has demonstrated that leaders may be made and not born, and the development of leadership qualities follows a specific progression. The study suggests that science is involved in teaching leadership development.
Professor Kari Keating, who teaches leadership courses in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences’ agricultural leadership education major, said that in only 15 weeks in their introductory class, students reported significant gains in three important components of leadership, self-efficacy, or confidence in their ability to lead, skills, and motivation to lead.
David Rosch said that leadership was a three-legged stool and they called it being ready, willing, and able. They also said that one could not really move on to the other legs of the stool until they had achieved a certain amount of this readiness. Rosch further added that the definition they used in the course was that leadership was an individual influencing a group of people toward a common goal.
Are leaders born or made- Does leadership training really work?
Analyses of over 100 years of leadership training and development efforts suggest that most programs do indeed lead to some positive change. Further, certain trigger events could lead to substantial improvement in leadership ability. For the most part, however, leadership development is a long-term and incremental process.
Successful executives learn their most important leadership lessons though:
- 70%: Challenging assignments (job changes and stretch assignments)
- 20%: Other people (bosses, coaches, mentors, etc.)
- 10%: Formal courses and books
(Source: Center for Creative Leadership)
Further, Hewitt’s 2005 study showed that 100% of the top 20 companies for leadership development had CEOs who were actively involved in developing leadership talent, compared with 65% of other companies (outside the top 20).
Also, an executive development survey found that 43% of CEOs and 71% of senior executives reported that they had worked with a coach. “Most telling, 92% of leaders being coached say they plan to use a coach again.”
(Source: Fast Company)
So what are some of the “best practices” for leadership development?
- Develop strong executive engagement
- Define tailored leadership competencies
- Align with business strategy
- Target all levels of leadership
- Apply a comprehensive learning approach
- Integrate with talent management
(Source: 2008 High-Impact Leadership Development; 2009: Best Practices, Bersin)
Further, Tom Rath and renowned leadership consultant Barry Conchie, authors of “Strengths- Based Leadership” conducted extensive studies for their book. Here are some of the findings of their research:
- The most effective leaders are always investing in strengths: When an organization’s leadership focuses on the strengths of its employees, the odds soar to almost 3 in 4 (73%).
- The most effective leaders surround themselves with the right people and then maximize their team: Gallup’s research found that top-performing teams have strengths in four distinct domains of leadership strength: executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking.
- The most effective leaders understand their followers’ needs: When thousands of followers were asked to describe exactly what they needed from a leader, they answered: trust, compassion, stability, and hope.
Moreover, there has been little longitudinal research on the early “roots” of leadership, but research suggests that the foundation of leadership begins at a very early age. Encouragement from parents and teachers likely plays a very important part, as does early exposure to a variety of social situations and novel experiences.
Needless to say, the argument on are leaders born or made in itself is less important than understanding what can make leaders (no matter what their initiation is) better. To that end, we hope research like this is able to showcase the most important skills that are considered valuable. Why you may be a good leader is one question, but as an executive in a senior position, how you can groom future leaders is also something that is highly valuable in today’s organisational structures.
