Are Leaders Born or Trained?

Over the years, there has been an ongoing debate on leadership and the big question is still being asked. Several scholars and leaders of thought have given their verdicts on this, the question is "are leaders born or trained".

At IBQMI® we know: leadership cannot be dissolved from education!

Leadership is all encompassing, tasking, and a huge responsibility to take. Several leaders across the world have shown different qualities which gave rise to the question of whether they were born or trained to become who they are.
History had it that some individuals develop super human skills from birth without any form of training which many believed made them good leaders. It is unarguable that though small in population, some individuals are not only born to lead, but has the natural ability to lead. This category of leaders are perhaps born. Those who support the verdict that leaders are born postulate the fact that some natural qualities such as intelligence, stature and family background made some people natural leaders.
Those who support the verdict that leaders are trained perhaps have a larger population. They gave resounding claims that being born isn't enough; one needs to be trained to be a leader. To advance their claim, they gave various medium through which a leader is made and some of these would be discussed:

1. Education: the proponents of this school of thought maintained that education makes a good leader. Education in this regard can be formal, semi formal and non formal. They continued by saying various leaders in business, administration, academic field, and others are educated to become leaders. This is not to say that those who are not educated don’t make good leaders, rather, education makes one a better leader.

2. Training: they argued once again that aside formal education, leaders are also trained on aspects like management, human relations, emotional intelligence, communication, entrepreneurship, safety and occupational therapy. The argument here is that many leaders are trained to fit into a particular system. In most cases, when organizations hire workers, they train them to fit into the system, thus, become good leaders.

3. Sacrifice and Responsibility: leaders attain leadership positions by virtue of sacrifices and taking up responsibilities. These leaders sacrifice time, resources and take up challenging responsibilities to meet up with the demand of leaders. The ability to shoulder responsibilities, and deliver as expected makes leaders and not necessarily by virtue of their birth.
In as much as one cannot totally discredit the fact that leaders may be born, they are also trained. Research over time has shown that most leaders are made by virtue of education, training, sacrifice and responsibilities.

In some fields like medicine, law, engineering and sciences, a thorough education and training is necessary to become a leader. Though, in fields like music, sports and entertainment, some people are professionally born to be Leaders.
In project management, leadership cannot be dissolved from education and training. The project manager needs to have sound and qualitative knowledge of project management, human and material resources management. In summary, leaders in project management are made and not just born to lead.

Learn how to use Continuous improvement and build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right from the first. Enroll in the Certified Lean Project Manager®