ASSIGNMENT QUESTION: Are leaders born or made? Definition of leadership: According to Northouse 2010, Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. By this definition, a leader is a person who rules or guides or inspires or influences others. A leader is someone other people are willing to follow, almost without question. A leader may not always make the right decision, but are confident in the decisions that they make. Leaders are not afraid to admit when they are wrong, they accepts responsibility and a leader know when to change direction when a wrong choice has been made. For, even after a few mistakes, a true leader will not lose the confidence of his or her followers; he will rally the followers to move together while creating opportunities for doing the right thing. Using the above definition, in my humble opinion leaders are made not born. If one has the desire and willpower, they can become a leader. As stated by Warren Bennis in his book on becoming a leader, leaders develop through a never-ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience. It is therefore impossible to be born with all the leadership abilities. A leader can only become a good leader if he or she has the humility and the will power to understand he/her-self and transform to be able to have followers. Historically, in African society folklore has been practicing the view that people are born leaders while others are not. Looking back to traditional African society, regardless of tribe, ethnicity or race, many Africans can trace their origins back to a monarchical or medieval system where the descendants of the ruling family found themselves plunged into leadership posi... ... middle of paper ... ...wn self-interest are not as effective because their employees only obey them, not follow them. They succeed in many areas because they present a good image to their seniors at the expense of their people. The basis of good leadership is honorable character and selfless service to the organization. In employees' eyes, leadership is everything a leader do that affects the organization's objectives and employee’s wellbeing. A respected leader concentrates on what he or she is [be] (beliefs and character), what a leader knows (job, tasks, human nature), and what a leader does (implement, motivate, provide direction). What makes a person want to follow a leader? People want to be guided by those they respect and who have a clear sense of direction. To gain respect, they must be ethical. A sense of direction is achieved by conveying a strong vision of the future
 The purpose of this paper is to identify and contrast the different styles of leadership exhibited by two characters found in the 1949 movie Twelve O’Clock High starring Gregory Peck as General Savage, Army Air Forces general. Based on a true story, Twelve O’Clock High is a inspirational account of the highly dangerous precision daylight bombing missions carried out by US Army Air Force’s 918th Bomber Group in England during the last part of World War II. In the beginning of the movie the squadron is commanded by general Davenport. It is very clear that General Davenport’s main concern is the wellbeing of his men. He obviously had developed close interpersonal relationships. The men of the squadron were completely devoted towards Davenport and they trusted any decision that he would make. General Davenport’s affection for his men comes to interfere with his ability to lead them. The squadron suffers heavy losses to planes and heavier losses to soldiers. One instance that clearly demonstrates Davenport’s incapability to uphold his responsibilities as the leader is when he jeopardizes the well being of the entire squadron by ignoring protocol and flying out of formation in the attempt to save one plane. When it becomes apparent to Davenport’s superiors that his emotional feelings have become an obstacle to his effectively leading the squadron they relieve him. General Savage who is ordered to take over the underachieving bomber group experiencing heavy losses because of poor technique and lack of focus. Savage takes a kind of tough love approach, holding his men to the highest standards. Savage makes the point that the ultimate objection of the squadron is to successfully complete the assigned missions. Throughout the movie Savage constantly makes it absolutely clear to the squadron that no one individual’s wellbeing will be placed ahead of the entire team and the success of the team. Initially the changing of the preceding General dispirits the squadron. They felt that General Savage was uncompassionate considering the men as nothing more then numbers that were dispensable at his convenience. After several missions that were marked by a remarkable turnaround in success the man eventually come...
Everyone has a different definition of what makes someone a leader. My definition is not a statement of requirements, but more so a list of characteristics. I believe it takes a strong, independent, dependable, open-minded, thoughtful, selfless, smart and creative, someone who can work well with others, able to work under pressure, respectful, and experienced individual to be a leader. I believe it is someone who knows who they are and know their morals, someone who has already found who they are in life and accepts who they are, making what I believe the most important characteristic is, is someone who knows and sticks with their personal values. If someone cannot respect values and stick to their word, then how can they be a leader of others? A leader takes a lot of work, but if you are good at it, it may seem like nothing. Some people are leaders and do not even know it, like role models. When little kids look up to certain people that have impacted their lives in a way, they will see those people as role models. Truth is, leaders are everywhere and not everyone knows or can see that. It's not always the person who stands out for taking control or being bossy, but the one with the characteristics and high values that do the right things, even when no one is watching.
Although, there are some leaders who are born “natural-born leaders” many must learn the skills to become a successful leader. Every leader has natural strong traits as well as weak areas that need improving. A leader becomes stronger while using their natural talents as well as building on their weaker ones.
Becoming a leader is never an easy task. It is complex with rational decision making and accepting responsibility for those decisions. Being the leader, does not mean that you always make the best choice, but it does mean you learn and grow from all you experiences. Sometimes becoming a leader is not a choice, but a responsibility that you inherit. Leaders are not born, but are created through trial and error. A true leader cares for his subordinate and will always respect, listen, and mentor them, but a true leader will also discipline correct subordinates when needed. Sometimes a leader needs to depend on his faith and look to a higher power, so that he can make choices with guidance.
I first encountered the significance of leadership in the tenth grade. Berry College the largest campus in the U.S. was in search of school ambassadors to serve part in a seminar known as HOBY. To get chosen you had to write an essay describing your leadership roles, and at that moment I thought that I did not have any. I literally did not know what it meant to be a leader. I had to brainstorm till I remembered going through one of the most difficult times of my life. The lack of understanding the English language became one of my biggest obstacles, and even caused me to repeat a chapter of my life. However, I did not cease; I continued to fight and strove to help others who were susceptible of following my steps. I used my story as an example, and hoped that it would make a difference in someone else’s life.
A leader is described as a person who guides others and has authority and influence over others. They work to influence others into meeting certain goals. There is no right or wrong definition of a leader and there is no recipe that ensures effective leadership. Successful leaders have a good balance of vision, influence, and power. Leaders gain their authority from their ability to influence others to get the work done; because of this, anyone has the potential to be a leader. (Finkelman. 2012, p15)
Since we are all born, the best answer to this question is: leaders are born and then made. A good leader is always moving forward; he never repeats the same thing! They strives to seek new experiences and they are in a constant self improving mode, that means he takes in information from a multitude of sources, including but not limited to his own interpretation of life experiences, observations, journals, website, informal training from an excellent mentor as well as from more formal training that is given in an academic setting.
Early leadership theories focused on the qualities that distinguished leaders and followers, while later theories considered situational factors, specific skills and interpersonal relationships (Rost, 2007). The Great Man Theory and other trait theories suggest that leaders are born, not made. “Leadership comes from an inherited set of qualities and traits that make some individuals, usually men, better suited for leadership” Northouse, (2007) p. 162).
The vision of leadership that leaders are born made, and not learn to be leaders is still considered but not popular among researchers (Avolio et al, 2013).
To be a leader you need to be able to inspire others, get people motivated, and set an example to other people. A leader needs to do all of these because if one of these aspects fails people don’t look at the leader...
Being a good leader means being able to guide people or organizations such as businesses. Being a leader means you have leadership in you, it means you have a set of skills that not everyone can possess and you can apply them to the situation that you are in. Not everyone can be a leader because not everyone can step up and take over a situation or maybe they don’t care enough to do something about it. A leader has to possess the following and more qualities, honesty, communication skills, confidence, commitment, intuition, a positive attitude, and creativity.
The Greek statesman Solon stated, “He who has learned how to obey will know how to command.” Approximately 250 years later, the Greek philosopher Aristotle asserted the converse of that statement when he said, “He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.” The concept of following seems to have been an important idea in ancient Greek times, but why is this idea of being a good follower important to today’s military leader? In order to be a truly effective leader, one must first learn to be a truly effective follower. Learning to be an effective follower is a required facet of effective leadership because we follow others at times, we learn by following, and we develop future leaders by following.
Leadership is complex to define In the past century, more than 10,000 articles have been published about leadership. Through the decades, the complex definition of leadership has intrigued the masses. In the book The Extraordinary Leader, the authors Zenger and Folkman write that there has been no way to define the different constituencies of the leader (Folkman, 2009). According to J.M. Burns, “Leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth.” Leadership is a p...
Many people believe that leadership is simply being the first, biggest or most powerful. Leadership in organizations has a different and more meaningful definition. A leader is someone who sets direction in an effort or task and influences or motivates people to follow that direction. The power point presentation explains leadership is the influence that particular individuals exert on the goal achievement of others in an organizational context.
Leadership can be defined as the ability to direct the operations, activity, or performance of others. A leader is an individual who leads, guides or inspires others. A leader is someone who will take charge of a group or be vocal amongst others. However, to be a leader, one must not only have the ability to take charge or be vocal, but also must have the respect of others in the group, team, or organization. With leadership, perception is the better part of reality: Being a good leader may be difficult if followers do not perceive the individual as one (Altar 2006). A leader must know what his or her followers think. Most important leaders will say that leadership ability is the single most important personal attribute that one needs to succeed.