Are Leaders Born or Made?

ASSESSMENT
1

TASK 1
a. Leaders are born not made while other management skills can be taught:
Various theories of leadership like trait theory and great man theory believe that people may
inherit particular traits or qualities that make them more suited for leadership. If leaders do
not come to the world with such skills, then it can be assumed that all the people enter the
world with equal competencies, talents and abilities. Some business experts believe in this
theory and it simply infers that people cannot be taught leadership skills (Afrianty, 2020). A
leader has the ability to influence other people in a way that they work towards a common
goal with zeal, become more committed and motivated and even increase their productivity
and vision. The debate of whether a leader is born or made is going on for decades and can
only be proved through experimentation. As per a recently concluded study by Damian and
et.al., (2019), a group of scientists started an experiment in the 1960s where the participants
were 16 years of age and participated in a series of questions in context to a personality test
and in 2010 the participants were given similar questions. The response from both periods
were compared and analysed and the participants that stated they have leadership qualities in
were still confident regarding their abilities after 50 years and stayed affirm on their opinion
in spite of the situations they faced. So, it can be inferred that there is a string possibility that
classical theories of leadership may state valid points and leaders are born with unique
qualities (Damian and et.al., 2019).
b. Summary of the points outlined in the article:
It can be summarized from the article that leaders are born and not made due to the three
main points, that are management skills can be taught but it is not easy to impart leadership
skills as the ability to share a vision with people takes a lot more. Firstly, leadership can be
defined as more of an art than science and comprises of innate traits and characteristics that
are perfected and ingrained over a period of time with training, education and most
importantly experience (Afrianty, 2020). The second concept is that leaders tend to be stern
regarding their view points and abilities and they don’t change over a period of time and stick
to their qualities of charisma, integrity, inspiring others, being a visionary, positive,
2