Are Leaders Born or Made?
By Greg Phillips

I was recently in a forum of business leaders who were discussing the question of whether leaders were born or made. The unanimous decision was that while some people have a natural ability for leadership, leaders are indeed made, not born.

John C. Maxwell noted is his excellent book, ‘Developing The Leader Within You’, the following:

start quote< Leadership can be taught.

Leadership is not an exclusive club for those who were “born with it”. The traits that are the raw materials of leadership can be acquired. Link them up with desire and nothing can keep you from becoming a leader.

Leadership is developed, not discovered. The truly “born leader” will always emerge; but to stay on top, natural leadership characteristics must be developed. In working with thousands of people desirous of becoming leaders, I have discovered they all fit in one of four categories or levels of leadership:

The Leading Leader:

• Is born with leadership qualities.
• Has seen leadership modelled throughout life.
• Has learned added leadership through training.
• Has self-discipline to become a great leader.

  Note: Three out of four of these qualities are acquired.

  The Learned Leader:

• Has seen leadership modelled throughout life.
• Has learned added leadership through training.
• Has self-discipline to become a great leader.

  Note: All three qualities are acquired.

  The Latent Leader:

• Has just recently seen leadership modelled.
• Is learning to be a leader through training.
• Has self-discipline to become a great leader.

  Note: All three qualities are acquired.

  The Limited Leader:

• Has little or no exposure to leaders.
• Has little or no exposure to leadership training.
• Has desire to become a leader.

  Note: All three can be acquired.’ >end quote

Leadership is generally thought of as the ability to lead others. The fact is that leadership starts within the leader and therefore self-leadership is in reality the key to successful leadership of others. The ability of an individual to lead themselves is paramount to their ability to lead others. How so, you might ask.

Think of anyone you admire as a leader. What sort of qualities do they have? How do they behave? What are their habits? Great leaders have certain characteristics, most of which are learnable.

  “Leadership is a combination of strategy and character.
If you must be without one be without the strategy.”
- General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

In working with organisations I have found that people consistently list the following attributes as being evident in admired leaders:

• Integrity
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Confidence
• The ability to cope with adversity
• Being consistent
• Having vision
• Being a creative thinker
• Displaying a winning attitude
• Being goal oriented
• Having strong self-discipline
• Being a positive influence
• Generating fresh ideas
• Understanding what motivates others
• Leading from the front

While the above list is not exhaustive anything else you may care to add to it is probably learnable as is everything on this list – yes, even integrity. People often learn to act with integrity when they understand why it is critical to their performance as a leader and how in fact they will never reach their full potential without it!

So you see, leadership is first and foremost about self-leadership. You can learn all the practical skills of being an efficient leader however without the inner qualities that great leaders have you will in fact be a manager rather than a leader. As is believed by most, leaders are made rather than born. Most importantly however great leaders have the ability to first of all lead themselves and it is this that makes them great leaders of others.

“I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself”
- Robert E. Lee

The points I would like people to take from this brief article are:

• What a person is, is just as important as what a person does.
• Practical skills are under-utilised unless a leader has certain well-developed personal inner qualities.
• These qualities that are found in all great leaders are learnable.
• If you want to be a great leader, start within.

“The wise leader recognises the excellencies of others and the imperfections of self”
- Greg Phillips

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