is a leader born or made? The dilemma of good leadership

Perhaps one of the most common questions in the business world is: Is a leader born or made? While some people have certain traits from birth, the truth is that anyone can assume a leadership role. The question is how...

You must have heard the phrase "this guy was born to be a leader" more than once. If you believe that leadership is innate, there must be personal factors that give people innate leadership capabilities. If so, organizations that spend millions of dollars each year on leadership development programs, like Google or Apple, are wasting money. But are they really to blame, or is there something else behind leadership?

While it is true that some people have a certain "leadership spark," they are charismatic, tend to solve problems very quickly, make good decisions, and inspire others. And everywhere, I believe that leadership is not a science, it is an art, and as such, over time, it can be refined and perfected. As long as everyone is in the right place at the right time (in their current organization), anyone can develop and hone the skills necessary to be a leader. So, is a leader born or made? It all depends on the opportunities presented by the context.

What is NOT leadership?

If you find yourself in a dilemma between what is natural and what is learned in answering whether leaders are made or born, my advice is to first determine how. Who is the leader? The silhouette of a leader has nothing to do with age, seniority or position in the organizational hierarchy, and someone certainly doesn't become a leader just because they are assigned the role (hence the difference between a leader and a boss). Leadership is a continuous process of social influence and inspiration within each team until the members reach their full potential. Like any other process, it must be accompanied by effort, determination, trust, trial and error and of course experience.

Is a leader born or made? Analyzing the dilema

For a more valuable analysis, let's try to understand the two positions:

1- Leaders are born,

For proponents of the Trait Theory, leadership is innate. According to this theory, some people are born with certain traits, communication skills and charisma to effectively influence, inspire, manage and lead teams. In this way, others can follow their vision and achieve common goals.

So, if some individuals have an innate tendency to be leaders, what about others? Can leadership come in only one form? What about our ability as human beings to learn, develop and grow over time?

2 - Leaders are not born, they are made.

Behavioral Theory, however, believes that leadership is something that can be learned. The time needed to learn varies from person to person, but the truth is that with time, experience, willingness and practice, anyone can acquire the skills necessary to become a leader.

Leadership today

Leadership goes hand in hand with market development. Today's world is too dynamic to think that people can be "born" with leadership, so the question of "born or become a leader" seems obsolete when it comes to saying about leadership. The characteristics of good leaders today have changed compared to decades past because today's world has also changed.

Assuming your business has been around for a long time, are the outstanding leaders of the 2000s still current and relevant to today's leadership needs? How do you manage your remote team? How do you handle crisis situations or the soft skills needed to limit and maintain employee engagement? In order to answer the dilemma between innate and learned, we should shift the focus of the discussion and instead of looking at the leader, we would have to examine the context in which leaders are made.

How are leaders made?

If you still think that great leaders are not made, but born, then I advise you to look back and think about those who rose above history. You will find that these people share characteristics that not only make them unique, but also help them generate innovative ideas to change the world. Are these people born leaders? No, the different contexts and challenges they face and the opportunities they present allow them to develop the skills and habits that make them inspiring role models.

From Nelson Mandela to Kamala Harris to Elon Musk to Steve Jobs to Melinda Gates (the list of inspiring leaders is endless), we can notice a common trait: these people are not looking for leadership. A boss who wants to make a difference. They encountered obstacles along the way and had to work hard to keep creating and innovating with a lot of courage, no matter the circumstances. All these people have made mistakes and disappointments more than once, but they still retain the confidence, commitment and flexibility to change course if necessary.

How are leaders built in organizations?

The internal and external situations that affect your organization will affect the type of leader you will have. Let's go back to the original question: Are leaders made or born? If you believe they are born, the idea that leadership is an innate ability reserved for the few will not allow you to discover the most promising talents that can make a difference in your company as leaders.

Instead, if you think they're done, you should remember that, with the right organizational culture and the right digital tools for professional growth, you can train and nurture leaders. Leadership so they can successfully handle any internal or external situation, from people to an Unexpected global crisis.

What can you do to prepare your leaders?

- Build a digital corporate culture that strengthens and empowers leadership within the organization (Do you know what type of leader you want to develop? What characteristics do you need and want them to have today?).

- Provide opportunities for professional development (while many people may already have some leadership qualities, make sure they have adequate training in face-to-face communication or the types of messages that will be conveyed). download anyone)

- Encourage creativity and self-expression in your team to find skills that can turn them into great leaders (don't want to miss them?).

- Encourage positive engagement, change and new challenges in transformation. Our brain's main purpose is to survive and it is the defense mechanism that kept us alive and where we are today. In the fast-paced and volatile world of business, the continuity of organizations depends on their ability to develop new adaptive skills for their employees. Then, new challenges can introduce good leadership skills that people don't even know they have.

- Make the invisible visible. If you believe that a leader is not born, but made, you must take a long-term look at business dynamics to identify and nurture the talent that can propel your organization into the future.

For example, digital solutions enable companies to accelerate professional development and team performance: not only do they have a significant positive impact on your company's culture at a child level, but they also provide managers with valuable information and insights to improve leadership within the company. Some advice for them:

1. Changing ways of working, speed and the ability to innovate will be key to the competitiveness of any organization. As an agile organization. The road will not be easy: "Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm," says Churchill.

2. Empower and motivate your team. Create a shared dream with all your employees. Napoleon taught us: "The leader is the negotiator of hope".

3. Recreate the 360 experience of your organization in a new environment, for customers, employees, suppliers and shareholders, to seize the opportunities of "the new nature" and create an ongoing sustainable competitive advantage. Put the consumer at the center and instill design thinking throughout the organization. Steve Jobs said, "Innovation separates leaders from followers.

4. Create the way you communicate with your customers, listen to them and make them happy. We are facing the greatest digital training in history. The numerical number will be the default from now on. There is only one strategy in the new environment: omnichannel.

5. Let yourself be consulted, surround yourself with the best team and the best suppliers who have the ability to think outside the box and reimagine the future. Einstein said: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

So, are leaders born or made? The veredict

I believe these types of questions have a purpose: to keep the discussion alive and to continue to hear other points of view and opinions. I will conclude by saying that while there may be a small percentage of leaders born with personality traits that allow them to achieve leadership positions, there is no one way to lead. Can leaders know? Yes, of course. How? 'Or what? Let it be. The right context and the right opportunities can make great leaders.

A personal anecdote

Covid19 has dramatically influenced retailer´s businesses and operating models. The most impacting people have been our colleagues working on the ground in the stores. In 2019 when the general population was extremely concerned regarding the virus´ impact on health and its effects on life as we know it, some individuals, our heroes and professionals in stores, put fear aside and continued taking care of customers´ needs and concerns. In this environment, I remember during one of my visits to the stores, one of the butchers came to me and told me: "Mr. Miguel, my five-year-old daughter, is here, and I would like to take a picture of you guys together." I remember this as if it was yesterday. I dropped to my knees to make sure I made eye contact with this young girl, and I asked her, "Did You know that your father is the big boss, the one that makes all these customers happy? Your Dad is a real hero!". The young girl's eyes shone with pride towards her Daddy, at the same time, the butcher, hero, and dad was full of emotion, the kind of emotion that causes a domino effect. Of course, the three of us took the picture together, as a happy family, but the most moving part of all was when he came to me and told me: "Mr. Miguel, what you've just done for me in front of my daughter, nobody has done it before... I will always follow you". What I learned from this experience was that all of us can be the leader of our dreams. We have the right and privilege to make a difference in other people's lives, make their life a little bit better by being genuine, being human. Companies aren't good or bad, we either have good or bad leaders. Which one are you?

Miguel Ángel Povedano