There are two very contrarian viewpoints about leaders and leadership. One viewpoint is that leaders are born and not made. The other viewpoint is that leaders are made and not born. It is true that some people show amazing leadership abilities from their childhood days, apparently a time when they certainly have undergone no training and don’t have any formal education to specifically become a leader. It is also true that some people who otherwise don’t have much leadership skills or at least have not displayed much leadership in their growing up days would get trained and groomed to become a leader.
Considering both the viewpoints, it may be possible that both statements are true and it could be possible that both statements make no sense. It is the natural urge of bystanders, commentators and people in general to categorize everything. We don’t like it when things are unexplained or not understood. Hence, it is easier to say that leaders are born or leaders get made than to accept a reality that we don’t understand why some people become leaders, just as we don’t understand why some leaders are better than others.
The truth is that birth and training are not the factors. What matters more is the individual in question. If a person has to be groomed from scratch and all their skills have to be honed, then that person will not become much of a leader. And, if a person has all the attributes of a leader by the virtue of birth then that person is hardly accomplishing anything by the virtue of life.
People become leaders through a lot of churn. There is intent from an individual, there is influence of the world around the person, there is an innate desire to do something worthwhile in a certain foray, there is a great deal of investment of time, effort, personal grooming and a lot of strength in one’s virtues than the weakness or gullibility to vices.
10 Great Leadership Quotes is a great example that iterates the point being made here. These great leaders are not the formulaic products of business schools and most of them did not show any leadership traits by the virtue of their birth. They became leaders nonetheless, because they wanted to and because they had it in them or worked on it. These quotes can inspire future leaders, can transform leaders to get better and can certainly shed more light on what leadership itself is.
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