Leadership Qualities – Are Leaders Born or Made?

Are Leaders Born or Made?

The enduring question ‘are leaders born or made?’ continues to rage in business schools, forums and on social media. Fuelling it is often a stock impression of what leaders look like and the leadership qualities they possess.

Our training experience proves that good leaders can be born and made. Read on to find out why, and learn about some of the leadership qualities that can help you.

Leaders Are Unique

There is no single universal template for a leader, and attempting to conform to a common ideal can actually inhibit your leadership potential. Team members can usually spot leaders who simply mimic what they think they should be doing.

No two leaders are the same, and nor should they be. They may share similar leadership qualities, but each quality will manifest differently based on the unique personality of the individual. Together, they help you to create a genuine, singular leadership style.

Leaders Must Develop

A born leader simply refers to someone who already possesses many leadership qualities. These are the people who tend to feel at home speaking out and rallying people around a cause. They have a way with words that encourages others.

Nevertheless, even the best leaders know their leadership qualities must be continually developed and maintained, which means that anyone who doesn’t feel like a born leader can use a similar transformational path to boost their leadership potential.

Leaders Focus on the Objective

Leadership is often associated with those who wish to be the centre of attention, and who enjoy being praised for their decisions and successes. This is usually not the case with good leaders, who tend to focus on being the right person to achieve a group objective.

Leadership may indeed thrust you into the spotlight, but team members can usually tell when the group objective is secondary to a leader’s desire to climb the ladder.

So what leadership qualities help you to lead? Let’s look at what inspires team members and delivers success.

A Good Team Member

Leaders understand that one person alone cannot achieve a group objective. A leader may be the glue that binds a team together and the compass that provides direction, but much of the actual work will be carried out by other people.

This is why good leaders often describe themselves as a ‘fellow teammate’ rather than ‘the boss’. Every teammate matters, and no single job is more important than others.

Self-Understanding

Good leaders tend to know who they are, which enables them to concentrate on being themselves rather than pretending to be someone else. This is about knowing what leadership qualities you already possess, and the unique way you apply them.

For example, let’s take motivation. Every leader has a slightly different idea of how to motivate others to achieve an objective. To become a good leader, you must understand your unique approach, and how you can improve it for optimal effectiveness.

Future-Facing

A leader is someone who can envision a better future, whether it’s the outcome of a successful project, or greater stability and prosperity for a company. In all cases, the leader’s ultimate objective is to benefit people directly or indirectly.

Anyone can imagine, but the leader’s vision must be practical and realisable, even if it requires a great deal of effort and innovation to achieve. The ideal objective is one that delivers maximum return on investment, which means the benefits are many times greater than the effort required.

A Clear View

The ability to see situations clearly is essential for anyone in a position of leadership. If you don’t know what’s going on, then all other leadership qualities can be wasted.

Leaders must be able to see the objective, strategy, and efforts of their team from as many different angles as possible, and in the context of a broad range of internal and external influences.

Seeing from different angles also includes understanding the perspectives of different team members, who will be viewing the objective and its challenges from their own unique position of experience.

Having a clear view can be easier for smaller businesses and projects, but leaders within larger enterprises will need strong reporting channels that provide accurate information about progress and challenges.

Good leaders even have a clear view of themselves. They can identify what may be influencing their decisions so they can remain as objective as possible.

Breaking Barriers

Leaders get things done with commitment, persistence, determination, and resilience. This often demands innovation and sometimes even a bit of anarchy to break through barriers.

Book individuals on our:

Building Resilience Course

Self-understanding is a critical part of this as it helps you identify any beliefs and rules that prevent you from seeing the solution to a challenge. Our ‘creativity workout’ is a valuable workshop exercise that focuses on rule-breaking and doing things differently.

Read – The Seven Barriers to Communication

Genuine Communication

Naturally, leaders must be able to communicate their vision of the future and the strategy that will take the team there. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to be a skilled public speaker.

Simply understanding the objective, strategy and the individuals that make up your team can be enough to command respect, inspire others, and ensure your directions are understood and carried out.

How Can Training Help Me?

Never be put off by the ‘are leaders born or made’ question. If you have the desire to lead, then you can develop your natural leadership qualities, and work on building those you feel less confident about.

Here are a few tips to help you develop a great leadership legacy:

• Consider the leadership qualities you have and those that may be less present.
  Leadership training courses are great for identifying this, but you can also take our Leadership Quiz.
• Write a list of leaders who inspire you. What leadership qualities do they exhibit? How does their unique personality underpin those qualities?
• Leadership qualities and leadership style go hand in hand.
  Learn more about What Makes a Good Leadership Style?
• The best route to leadership is stepping up to lead.
  Learn How to Establish Yourself as a Leader in the eyes of those around you.

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Are Leaders Born or Made