Leaders Are Born, Not Made
“Leaders are Born, Not Made” Discuss.
Introduction
Whether leaders are born and not made is a discussion that has been debated for centuries and yet it still divides opinion today. Like many, on receiving this assignment my instinctive gut response was that they are! However, over the course of my exploration into the subject matter and in greater reflection of my own personal experiences, my contention is now similar to that of the famous and successful American football coach Vince Lombardi who said “Leaders are not born, they’re made. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile”
This sentiment will form the basis of my argument and my position on the topic. However, I will also raise and comment on supporting evidence for the notion that leaders are born and not made.
Before diving into this discussion, logic would dictate that we would first have to confirm a definition of a ‘leader’ and therein lies our first problem as the term ‘leader’ has a multitude of varying definitions. The same is true with leadership, where Stodgill says that “there are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept”.
With this in mind and for the purposes of this discussion I would like to go with Google’s simplistic definition, which states that a leader is “The person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country. A person followed by others”
So armed with a definition, lets first discuss the argument against my stance, let us look at the evidence for the notion that leaders are born.
Leaders are born – The Evidence
First up, I cannot sing. In fact, I would go as far as to say I am a terrible singer. At first glance you may be asking yourself, what relevance does that have to the point in hand. The significance is that I know for a fact that no amount of training, coaching or development will ever turn me into a great singer. I was simply
Introduction
Whether leaders are born and not made is a discussion that has been debated for centuries and yet it still divides opinion today. Like many, on receiving this assignment my instinctive gut response was that they are! However, over the course of my exploration into the subject matter and in greater reflection of my own personal experiences, my contention is now similar to that of the famous and successful American football coach Vince Lombardi who said “Leaders are not born, they’re made. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile”
This sentiment will form the basis of my argument and my position on the topic. However, I will also raise and comment on supporting evidence for the notion that leaders are born and not made.
Before diving into this discussion, logic would dictate that we would first have to confirm a definition of a ‘leader’ and therein lies our first problem as the term ‘leader’ has a multitude of varying definitions. The same is true with leadership, where Stodgill says that “there are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept”.
With this in mind and for the purposes of this discussion I would like to go with Google’s simplistic definition, which states that a leader is “The person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country. A person followed by others”
So armed with a definition, lets first discuss the argument against my stance, let us look at the evidence for the notion that leaders are born.
Leaders are born – The Evidence
First up, I cannot sing. In fact, I would go as far as to say I am a terrible singer. At first glance you may be asking yourself, what relevance does that have to the point in hand. The significance is that I know for a fact that no amount of training, coaching or development will ever turn me into a great singer. I was simply