Is Leadership an Inborn Trait

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leadership- an inborn quality.

Is leadership an inborn quality or Can it be taught? is the most discussed and debated question in academic and non-academic circles with no correct answer yet found.

One School of thought holds the view that leadership is a trait that can be developed through classroom training, leaders are not born but can be created.

Prof. Michael Jensen Harvard economist belongs to that school... Sometime back in an interview with Namrata Singh of Times of India ( I could not trace the date . month and year of the interview but I am sure it did happen)--

he says: that leaders are not born, they are made in classrooms on basic principles like integrity and authenticity. Whether integrity can be taught or whether one can be made visionary in classroom settings does not seem tenable and is debatable?

leadership instinct you are born with is the backbone; you develop the funny bone and the wishbone that go with it ? Elaine Agather

Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw while addressing Army Personnel once remarked ? the real problem for all our difficulties, all our shortages, etc. is lack of leadership? leadership does not change. The attributes of leadership have come down the years. I do not know whether leaders are born or leaders are made.

There is a school of thought, which, says leaders are born. If leaders are not born, can we make leaders? And my answer is yes. Give me a man or a woman with common sense and who is not an idiot and I assure you, you can make a leader out of him or her.?

Though field Marshall also believed that leaders can be created but his sharp focus in his lecture was on creating leaders by developing professional knowledge and competence, and this certainly cannot be disputed.

By training, this attribute can be developed and nurtured but it is doubtful if the other attributes like honesty and moral courage the traits one is born with. Can be instilled by training. Integrity.

Courage of convictions, humility, vision are not skills but traits and can certainly be polished and refined through external intervention
The most important attribute of the leadership is unquestionable integrity Hall mark of leadership is absolute integrity, truthfulness, and straightforward dealing under all circumstances. This implies that the leader must be impeccably honest with him and with others.

As Emerson said, ?Guard your integrity as a sacred thing. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

* Integrity is the core of leadership, Everything a leader does reflects the person he is really inside...What he is inside is always mirrored by the things he does and says. This Integrity can not be measured on a scale of 1 to 10?one is either honest or one is not. No external intervention can possibly convert a dishonest person into an honest person though ?Integrity lies at the core of leadership? can be demonstrated through case studies and examples.
And this school of thought gets support from
Harvard Business Review (December 2001) that reported on the defining moments for 17 world class leaders, no one identified a development activity as a major influence.

* In fact, at one European car importer, concurrent employee opinion surveys and multi-rater appraisals revealed that managers who had experienced a leadership development programs had produced dissatisfied employees and reduced: efficiency. And in a follow-up investigative study, one disenchanted employee commented, we used to have leaders who knew what they were doing, and told us,? Now we have managers, most of them can?t make a decision without a focus group or asking us what to do. We are promoting clones? How demoralizing it is, it suggests training can not make one a leader.

Professor Amin Rajan in one of his articles in Professional Manager says, like love, leadership is hard to define. Leadership and love, though, cannot be defined, can certainly be described, and can be observed. Feeling of love throws up some signals that indicate that love is in the air likewise some behavior patterns in an individual give cue to the leadership traits he has.

Love is universal but intensely personal. Likewise, leadership is universal and it is personal as well. Love energizes the universe so does leadership. From this energy flows action. Leadership encompasses the whole universe in its fold; Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela are the shining examples of this Universality, their footprints are indelible, eternal.
Leadership derives energy from the love of the vision/ mission that he/she is set to realize. Mother Teresa is an example of this purity of love that kept her energized to keep going strongly/enthusiastically with the noble mission of serving the poor preaching LOVE ALL -HATE NONE to make this world hatred free.

Similarly, it was the love of the vision/mission to have their countries free from the shackles of slavery that energized Gandhi and Mandela. They had the reservoir of energy/passion that kept their people energized and motivated and mission achieved. How apt the remark of Fillet, ??there is energy, passion, unweakened life in us--those who call it forth are leaders?, fits in with these leaders.

They did not sustain themselves in reflected glory. They had integrity, the strength of character that restrained them from falling prey to temptations to self glorification and self perpetuation. They were passion- igniter They had charisma
Charisma is the leadership instinct with which an individual is born with. Charisma is reflection of one?s personality.

It is a wonderful icing on the cake; .it is the galvanizing impetus in moments of great peril. Charisma is simply integral to getting things done. It is like magnet that pulls and draws people to the leader, and it is an aura that surrounds a leader. It is devoid of arrogance, but laced with humility.

Charisma can be bad, charisma can be good. Bad Charisma: is not backed by brains, vision, integrity and character, such a charisma is useless and mostly dangerous. It is hollow and destructive when it is directed at self perpetuation and self glorification. History throws up many examples of charismatic leaders like Saddam Hussein and Idi Amin whose dark power has been ruinous. Their charisma was devoid of vision, wisdom and integrity.

They had no character; consequently they and their people/country suffered.
Good Charisma is backed by wisdom, integrity, intelligence, vision -one with these inborn traits just makes the ambience all around vibrant, energized, and productive.

Among political leaders Mahatma Gandhi and African legend Nelson Mandela and among Business Leaders Dhiru Bhai Ambani., JRD Tata were the charismatic leaders. They had vision, they had passion .They displayed never ending persistence, empathy and action. They listened, they never arrogated to themselves having the monopoly on wisdom, they surmounted all the obstacles in their journey to the promised lands, they had conviction and belief in what they were dong to inspire others and they did achieve what they wanted to ,they did not merely play with words, they practiced what they preached.

The inscription on the tombstone of Andrew Carnegie is very revealing. * Here lies the man; who knew how to enlist?
In his service, better men than himself.
* This is leadership at its best: These traits can not be developed by training but can be sharply honed and polished through external intervention.