Leadership: Nature or Nurture

There are several arguments concerning the development of leaders and whether leaders are born or made; I argue that effective leaders are products of both nature and nurture. 

Successful leaders are born with a high emotional capacity and several strong dispositions. On the other hand, situational factors and life experiences cultivate these traits and provide opportunities for people to emerge as leaders when necessary. The theory that closest resembles my view of leadership is Fiedler’s Contingency Model, which contends that leader orientation and situation favorability are essential for successful leadership.

 

I personally define a leader as a person who values relationships and uses communication to provide direction, alignment, and inspiration to a group of people as they undergo or experience change. Good leaders have the ability to use strong informal relationships to communicate a vision and allow followers to contribute their ideas while “growing professionally”.