Are leaders born or made?

Are leaders born or made?

Leadership is basically the process of social influence in which one particular person is able to help and support the others in order to accomplish a common task. It is also about creating something that could help out the people achieve something that is extraordinary. There are a lot of leadership theories proposed by many theorists. (Lee 1999).

Leadership styles

The following are some of the leadership styles that are found in an organization.

Transformational leadership theory

In this the people are more likely to follow a person who inspires them more, they have to have a vision for their set goals and always work with enthusiasm and interest.

The foremost thing in transformation leadership is that they a vision has to be developed by the leader after which they have to sell their vision. Some people will readily accept it; however there would be always some would be reluctant or slow to accept it. After this, the leaders have to find ways to encourage the employees to accept the vision and follow it and then finally they have to lead them.

Get quality help now

writer-Charlotte

Verified writer

Proficient in: Leaders Are Made Not Born

4.7 (348)

“ Amazing as always, gave her a week to finish a big assignment and came through way ahead of time. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Transactional leadership

In this, it is believed that the employees are motivated by rewards and punishment, that social systems are the best and the employee is basically to do all the tasks that are assigned to him by the supervisor. Such kind of leaders are more inclined to work according to the rules set by the organization and are not likely to make any changes on their own.

Furthermore, once work is assigned to an employee it is the responsibility of the employee to do it at its best.

Servant Leadership

Servant leadership is the most preferred leadership models. The task of the service leader is basically to serve the employees that they lead. The servant leaders are basically are involved in solving the needs of employees working for the organization, therefore their primary objective is to focus on the needs of the people they lead. Every employee needs to be polished in order to bring out his skills and abilities and the servant leaders are the ones who take care of this, encourages and facilities the employees, etc. They make sure that the employees are working at their full potential

Bureaucratic leader

This kind of leadership follows the procedures that have already been established, it is slow and neither does it explore new ways.

Charismatic leader

The leader incorporates motivation in the employees and such leaders have to commit to the organization in the long run.

The autocratic leader

Such leaders have full authority to take decisions and are preferred by such employees who need close supervision in order to complete the tasks assigned to them.

The democratic leader

Such leadership involves including the employees in decision making, however the final decision is taken by the leader. (Zimmerman 2006).

Leadership development

This refers to any activity that aids in the enhancement of the quality of leadership in an individual.

Learning styles

These are basically the ways of learning that involve methods used to educate individuals and help him learn to his best. This concept was introduced in 1970 and is now gaining popularity.

Changes in organization from industrial age to informational age

This era is the consumers’ place more significance on value and the organizations that succeed in this are more profitable than others.  All customers want to make the most from the value that they are willing to pay in order to buy something. Therefore, they want easy access, high quality and full satisfaction with minimum or at least at a reasonable price. Other than that, the consumers require innovation. People usually get bored with the same thing for long. Therefore, the product should always be kept up-to-date in order to fulfill the growing demands of the existing and the prospective customers. Not doing so could do no good but would harm the firm as they would lose customers due to the existing competitors. Nowadays there is an ample amount of information that is available everywhere. No customer is a layman and so no one can be fooled.

Conflict in the workplace and how leaders manage conflict

In order to manage conflicts, conflict management must be used. Conflict resolution is an amalgamation of different processes that aids in eliminating the sources of conflict and these processes includes negotiation, mediation and diplomacy and dispute resolution or alternative dispute resolution are other terms for conflict resolution. (Kevin & Steve 2007).

Leadership in the 21st century

The following are the attributes of leadership in the 21st century.

1.      Leadership is for everyone – there are always some people who are better than the others. However, every person has the ability to learn new things and come up to the standard of the people who are superior.

2.      Leadership involves learning – leaders share the knowledge they have with the other people and spread it. (Couto 2007).

3.      Leadership is team based – giving empowerment to the members of the team is one of the best ways to motivate them. Moreover, this also suggests equal treatment to be given to all.

4.      Leadership is not authoritarian – one of the common believe in the 21st century is that authority comes from what you say and not what you are.

5.      Leadership includes followership – this is a fact that certain people do have more responsibility than the others but the other people can always learn. Development must take place constantly, the suggestions of the employees must be heard and given importance and they should be given empowerment as well.

Strategic change

This refers to the changes proposed by the management in order to achieve the goals of the organization in a better way.

Women in leadership

Previously, women were not much involved in such activities but now we hear of many women who serve very well as leaders. The trend of the society is changing and now. Women, these days are more aware of the competition that is existing in the world today and so they act accordingly.

A successful women leader knows her field very well. Moreover, she stays on the top of current development, trends as well as theories, is well aware of her strengths as well as weaknesses and demonstrates her words and actions with the strength of her character and integrity. (Andy 2005).

The importance of collaboration

Joining hands to work in order to achieve a common goal is called collaboration and it is all about sharing resources. Collaboration results in a higher rate of achievement that would be hard to achieve if one works solely.

Leadership’s utilization of information systems

These days information technology has taken its way and most of the operations are incomplete without it. However, the leaders have to take care to utilize information technology in an appropriate manner.

How leaders use their knowledge to create a learning environment

The culture an organization adopts should be such that it should be accepted by all the employees and it basically helps to understand the human system in an organization. There are basically two types of challenges a culture has to overcome. Once an employee joins an organization, he has to get accustomed to its culture effectively and only those who can adopt it well can survive. After the employees adopt the culture, it leads to a collective learning process creating shared assumption and beliefs. (Magnussen 2003).

Although this is a fact that people resist to change but change is essential for every organization to progress. People employed at the lower positions mostly do not voice their opinions. However, an idea might erupt in any person’s mind at any time and it should be shared with the organization by those also who are not on the top positions in an organization. The drawback here is that people are afraid to share their opinions and this major factor that limits the learning process in an organization. (Northhouse, 2006).

Learning organizations help to develop relationships between the people from different backgrounds who have different talents and experiences but who work together to achieve a particular goal for the company.

Conclusion

The question being if the leaders are born or made is being asked since centuries and has always been debated. However, I would conclude that leaders are both born and made and in the coming paragraphs I would justify my statement. (Kouzes & Posner, 2008).

Supporting the fact that leaders are born, I would say that there are some things that a person has to have in him before becoming a leader and that is intelligence as it is essential for a person to be smart enough in order to become a leader in order to perform the task assigned to him well. Moreover, a person has to have potential in himself to become a leader and this comes to a person at the time he is born and when a person becomes an adult we can tell whether he can manage his responsibilities well or not, is he able to take his decisions or not and even the basic qualities required in a leader becomes prominent in a person if he has those qualities or not. All these things are essential for a person to become a leader; however these are not just enough as the person needs to learn skills as well to become effective leaders for which he has to learn how to perform his job. (Benefiel, 2008).

Once a person knows the basics of leadership, he can always learn new things required being a leader and leaders actually learn 80% of their craft while doing their job and they do this by observing things and learn from their mentors. Feedback is essential for the leaders to improve as this enables them to know their faults and areas where they are wrong. Moreover, they learn things by trying out things and then evaluating their performance, in case their fail they always make things better. Effective leaders know how to control their development and they look for training programs for further improvement. (Three Star Leadership n.d.)

Bibliography:

Andy, H., 2005, Leadership Succession, The educational forum. February 1st, 2009.        Retrieved from: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4013/is_200501/ai_n9473826
Benefiel, M., 2008. The Soul of a Leader: Finding Your Path to Success and Fulfillment, The     Crossroad Publishing Company, Paperback.
Couto, R.A., 2007, Reflections on leadership, Reference & Research Book News. February      1st, 2009.  Retrieved from:           http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0QLQ/is_2007_August/ai_n19452261
Kevin, M. & Steve, B., 2007, exercising leadership. February 1st, 2009. Retrieved from:       http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3993/is_200712/ai_n25419169
Kouzes, J.M. & Posner, B.Z., 2008, The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition, Jossey-Bass,           Paperback.
Lee, L., 1999, Leadership, Encyclopedia of Business, 2nd Edn. February 1st, 2009.         Retrieved from: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5209/is_1999/ai_n19125783
Magnussen, A., 2003, Leadership: not management, The Australian Library Journal.                                February 1st, 2009. Retrieved form:              http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go1984/is_200211/ai_n6490303
Northhouse, P.G., 2006, Leadership: Theory and Practice, 4th Edn, Sage Publications, Inc,        Paperback.
Three Star Leadership, n.d. Are Leaders Born or Made? February 1st, 2009. Retrieved from:             http://www.threestarleadership.com/articles/bornormade.htm
Zimmerman, J.A., 2006, Distributed Leadership, School Administrator. February 1st, 2009.        Retrieved from: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JSD/is_10_63/ai_n16834332