Are Leaders Born or Made Essay

People have debated whether leaders are born or made for centuries. However, I am absolutely convinced that good leaders are made than born. If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader. â€Å"Good leaders can develop through a never ending process of self-study, education, training and experience† (Jago, 1982). To inspire workers into higher levels of teamwork, there are certain things a leader must be, know, and, do. These do not come naturally, but are acquired through continual work and study. Good leaders are continually working and studying to improve their leadership skills; they are NOT resting on their laurels. Definition of Leadership Before we get started, let’s define and understand about leadership. Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership attributes, such as beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills. In the field of organizational learning, leadership entered the discussion as a proxy for the organization. Initial concepts of leadership in organizational learning were based on the notion of the dominant coalition. Organizational learning theorists had suggested that the senior management team, or dominant coalition, was in fact the organization level of organizational learning. Moreover, leadership has been described as the â€Å"process of social influence in which one person enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task. According to Ken â€Å"SKC† Ogbonnia, â€Å"effective leadership is the ability to successfully integrate and maximize available resources within the internal and external environment for the attainment of organizational or society goal. Charismatic Leaders are made but not born. However, there are many well-educated and motivated people who lack of the knowledge to lead others. So they don’t assume leadership positions, or if they do, they don’t do very well in them. Thus, to become a made leader, we need to know about the characteristic of a leader for us to learn and explore from there. Having charisma is an important quality to any successful leader, that’s all highly successful people must develop to maximize their success in leadership roles, as well as use it to gain a great advantage over their competition. Charisma can be explained as an indefinable personal magnetism that helps draw people to you, and makes them want to cooperate and work with you to accomplish your dreams. To increase your own level of charisma, you must first be confidence in your own vision. If you have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish, then you need to focus on setting goal for yourself, and make plan to achieve them without delay. The clearer you are about your purpose, and how you are planning to achieve it, will naturally to attract others to help and support you in any way they can. However, some say charismatic is born but not made. Yes, it’s. But without the born charisma, you can also increase the level of you charisma by talking and interaction with other, certain interactions and rewards increase starting relationships, such as a Celebrity using a Charming Introduction will instantly have a new friend. Charisma skill-building requires friends and relationships to progress. Personality and Physical Build Besides, the personality is also an important element to become a made leader, great leaders must have the ability to project themselves, to communicate with subordinates in order to accomplish a task by teamwork. The dictionary definition of personality is the collection of emotional and behavioural traits that characterize a person. That is, your personality is how you present yourself to the world. It is how others see you. Is that important for leadership effectiveness? I think so. Your public persona is the catalyst for enrolling followers. For example, you might be typically dominant, or perhaps you’re always a friendly person, or even someone who takes very few risks. These examples are personality traits. You may also simply improve your personality by your appearance such as dress up and make up well as the appearance oneself always the first impression they given to other. Aside of personality, physical build is also a trait of characteristic for being a leader, this can be made and improved by one self. For example, the children now are mostly taller and stronger than their parents because of the better knowledegement care. Talent, skills and knowledge Beyond the personal traits of a leader, leadership talent, skills and knowledge someone must master if they want to be a leader. Leadership talent is those innate traits that a person is born with but which they need to work on to develop their potentiality, Leadership skills are learned behaviours that a person practices and hones over time. And leadership knowledge is acquired learning about the methods, strategies, successes and failures of other leaders in business and in different walks of life. The traits include intelligence, creativity, diplomacy, persuasiveness, and organizational ability. The difference of the three is an intrinsic character of the leader and the latter two are learned. And an effective leader combines all three: harnessing mixture of their natural characteristic, their learned replicable behaviors, and their mental data and learning into their own unique way to expressing themselves as a leader. Knowing well of the managerial function Besides, knowing well of the managerial function is also a must for a made leader. From day-to-day operating, they should be able to learn about planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling in order to lead their subordinates in an effective way. Planning refers to anticipate the opportunity, problems and conditions and choosing from among the alternative of future courses or actions. That includes forecasting, programming, scheduling and etc. The organization functions consist of developing the organization, delegating authority and establishing relations. Staffing is about planning the organization with suitable personnel constitutes the staffing function. Direction function involves managing people and work through the means of motivation, proper leadership, effective communication and coordination. Controlling function enables management to ensure the achievement is in accordance with the established plans. Communication skill Moreover, to be a made leader, we should train ourselves to make effective communication thru experience. The communication skill can definitely be improved if you have the desire to do it, a smart leader must always the â€Å"30 seconds message† which transmitting the most important message within the shortest time. Effective communication is more than just being able to speak and write. A leader’s communication must move people to work toward the goal the leader has chosen. Besides that, a leader has to be able to motivate everyone to contribute. Each of us have different â€Å"button†, a great leader should knows how to push to right button on everyone to make them really want to do their best to achieve the leader’s goal. This is definitely not born because leader could press the right buttons on everyone through understanding their personality. Honesty and Integrity, Forward looking, Independence and Innovation. In addition, the characteristic of a leader is also consisted by honesty and integrity, forward looking, independence and innovation. Once should not even be considered to become a leader without having demonstrated the honesty, integrity and trustworthiness to have and maintain a position of public trust. At all levels, individuals with integrity and honesty show moral courage by doing the right thing even when it is not popular or by expressing dissent when actions or pending decisions would violate organizational and/or constitutional values, laws, and regulations. In addition, they confront unethical behavior in others. Furthermore, the honestly and integrity is about following rules and regulation, this is made as we have no choice but have to follow the rules and regulation of the organization. As a great leader, we always need to be forward-looking toward any issue or problem. When people do not consider their leader forward-looking, that leader is usually suffering from one of two possible problems which are the leader doesn’t have a forward-looking vision and the leader is unwilling or scared to share the vision with others. The forward-looking attitude can be influenced by those people who are surrounding us with positive-minded, this can be made but not born. Last but not least, a great leader is also an innovator. Innovation is about making new tools, products and process, bring forth something â€Å"new† which allows human being to accomplish something they were not able to accomplish previously. We can be innovation through study, research, discuss and deliberated from past experience. Leaders must be tough enough to fight, tender enough to cry, human enough to make mistakes, humble enough to admit them, strong enough to absorb the pain, and resilient enough to bounce back and keep on moving. Leaders must be tough enough to fight, tender enough to cry, human enough to make mistakes, humble enough to admit them, strong enough to absorb the pain, and resilient enough to bounce back and keep on moving. Leader is made because a person becomes a leader through life and work experiences, through mentors and personal reflection. Leader takes time to develop and they were made just like anything else, through hard work. If you are given a chance, you practice, you can also be a leader.