The most commonly assumed perception about leaders is that they are born instead of being made. However, there are many arguments given against this notion which says that the leaders with distinctive qualities are inborn. A meticulous analysis of all the leadership theories functions are of various dimensions and to understand how leaders work and achieve their goals with the help of others or rather it depends what skills and abilities they possess within them or how well they utilize the skills of others to achieve the desired results. But our focus will be on two theories namely The Great Man Theory and Trait Theory that suggest that great leaders are gifted with few traits that make them different from the masses and they nurture these skills throughout their life both these theories are interdependent upon each other while the former states that charismatic personality and few qualities like courage, charm, aggressiveness and persuasiveness are there in a person from their birth while the latter states that social, physical and intellectual trait and a few qualities like honesty, integrity, intelligence, ambition and energy to lead is what makes a leader different from others. Both these theories suggests that few personal traits should be there in a person that makes him lead the world and these traits could not be developed or learnt over a period of time these should be inborn. A great example of it is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a well-renounced leader from India who after fighting strongly against racism in South Africa came back to India and made a strong struggle against British and made them leave India. Even though Gandhi was a lawyer by profession which was believed by many requires deceitful and cunning practices but he was never resorted to lying and always followed his own path which was the path of truthfulness, forgiveness and equality and the most important his self-belief in his own principles that made people follow him in great numbers. He was the one who believed in truth being the strongest weapon and never gave up on his ideas and was always ready even to die for his cause. He fasted and was even jailed many a times but never gave up on his principles.
References
Khagendra 2012 Theories of Leadership inRetrieved from:https://www.slideshare.net/kesarinandan96/theories-of-leadership-13415459
Hyacinth B. 2014 Are Leaders born or made? A true story Linked inRetrieved from: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141026042807-150905450-are-leaders-born-or-made-a-true-story
N. A. 2017 Hitler or Gandhi: Choosing the path of Leadership. LEADERONOMICS.COM Retrieved from: https://leaderonomics.com/leadership/hitler-gandhi-leadership-path
Do you feel you were born a leader or do you feel that your training and experiences have created and fostered the leader within you? Your thoughts.
