Thanks to Giles who sent me this link to an interesting article on the BBC asking just that question. He knew that this would get me going on one of my favourite subjects so I thought I’d post it here.
Leadership is a fascinating subject and I can talk about it for hours. For me the question they ask is daft because what they are asking is thus:
Are Leaders (and by that I mean the feelings and behaviours I have anchored to that word) made or born?
I guess at the heart of it Leadership for me is the ability to take someone somewhere. You could use a geographical, experiential, emotional, financial or any other metaphor for this, though the outcome is the same. If you have taken someone from one state to another you have led them. For some people this is done inadvertently (we are led in many directions everyday, and often by inanimate objects; i saw someone canoeing down a river whilst on the train yesterday and that led me to text one of my friends who is an avid canoeist), and for others it is deliberate; your boss, your coach, an opinion expressed on a website.
Leadership to me is a direction away from where you are or a reinforcement to stay in the same spot.
So what is a leader? I think that a leader has a belief in a direction, and the conviction and drive to get there. Motivation to act. And we all have motivation to act; I may not be Richard Branson yet put me in a flaming building and see my motivation. So we all have the capacity to lead others in directions that motivate us. A good leader combines this with the ability to communicate this direction and motivate others to move in the same direction. What motivates me may not motivate you, yet a good leader manages to motivate everyone in the same direction, and that comes down to a combination of empathy, good communication and the ability to gain trust from his followers, and it is this trust that bridges the gap between what motivates the leader and what motivates the followers.
So in answer to the original question. Can leaders be made. Yes we all have the skills necessary to lead, and we do all lead in one way or another. Some people attribute those skills to “classical” leader roles more readily than others. Yet we all have the ability to be leaders in those roles too. Good leaders? I don’t know, it would depend on your intrinsic motivations to be so.
Told you I could go on.
