Leadership Qualities: Inherent or Acquired?

This essay explores the debate on whether leadership qualities are inherent or can be acquired through education and training. It discusses different theories of leadership, including the trait theory, behavioural theory, and great man theory, and how they relate to the acquisition of leadership skills. The essay also highlights the importance of teaching, observation, and training in developing leadership skills, and identifies some key skills that are essential for effective leadership.

Running Head: JUSTICE MANAGEMENT 0
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“Leadership qualities are inherent. Some people will innately make good leaders and others will
not. It is not something that can be passed on through education or training”

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Leaders are the person who leads a group of person with some special characteristics.
Some leadership qualities in a person are inherent. These qualities help a person to guide
other. The various persons have some leadership skills but only a few make the right use of
those skills. There are some inherent qualities such as confidence, boldness, attitude,
communication. Great man and trait theory favour that leaders are born not made. However,
it is not necessary that every person is born with such leadership skills. These skills can be
learned further through teaching and observation. In order to become a leader, it is required
by a person to initiate the idea of becoming a leader. On the other hand, behaviour theory
states that it is not necessary that all leaders are born rather there are some skills that can be
learned further with the help of training and observation. This theory mainly focuses on the
behaviour of people (Northouse, 2017). In this way, there are different skills that can be
acquired by the person with the help of teaching, observation, and training. In this essay, a
critical statement is presented in the argument that it is not necessary that leadership qualities
are inherent. By presenting different theories of leadership, the discussion is done clear.
It is not compulsory that leadership qualities are inborn. Yes, some leaders are born
with some special and unique qualities that make them a leader. These leadership qualities
include boldness, positive attitude, and self-confidence. In this regard, the trait theory of
leadership states that some leaders have some personality traits that make them the leader.
According to this theory, “leaders are born, not made.” It states that some core attributes in a
person make a person leader. It provides an indication of personal potential that can be
identified by an organization and developed further. In this regard Reece & Walker, (2016)
state that there are some singers whose voice is miracle that makes them a good singer. Their
skills are not developed through any type of training then also some people perform with
excellence. On the other hand, the behavioural theory states that people can be leaders by
learning, teaching, and observation. As per this theory, Leadership is a skill that sometimes
learns through perception, practice, training, and experience over time. It also states that the
special traits of a person depend on the behaviour. These behaviour people can learn from
themselves as well as from others. It believes that there is particular behaviour that leader
learn in order to become a leader. It means that persons are trained to become a leader. In this
regard, various organizations provide leadership training to help a person to start leading
others. In this way, behaviour theory provides the better perspective that leadership is not
only meant for a few persons. By eliminating the limitations of trait and great man theory,
this theory proves to be sometimes successful. Therefore, behavioural theory puts more

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emphasis on the skills and behaviour of people. Leadership is the choice of person; the people
who want to be a leader will always come forward in order to face the challenge (Storey,
2016). It is rightly said that a person’s hard work pays off. If a person has determined
something to do and working hard for that, he or she will achieve that.
The belief of “Great Man Theory” states that great leaders are born with some unique
features such as confidence, intelligence, charisma, and social skills. All these features make
the person leaders from childhood (Gebert, Heinitz & Buengeler, 2016). It applies to some
person who got some special skills that make them a leader. Various persons have all
leadership skills from childhood. It helps them in becoming leaders by leading and guiding
other. Some people have charisma leadership skills that help a person to lead other. The most
notable example of charismatic leadership is Bob Brown who has some special characteristic
that helps him in becoming Prime Minister (Grabo & van, 2016). The influencing
characteristic helps such persons to lead other members. Leadership cannot be taught by
anyone, but it can be learned through mentoring and coaching. The best example of
leadership skills can be learned further is Bill Gates who despite several failures has done
innovation. Microsoft is the innovation done by Bill Gates and now it is the most successful
software industry (Amanchukwu, Stanley, & Ololube, 2015). It is understood that a leader’s
skills are not always inherent but can be learned through teaching, coaching as well as
mentoring. Teaching is the best possible way to learn something. Teaching is a most
important way to help students to learn various skills. Various skills are required by a person
to become leaders. The person in the journey of school can learn all these skills. The main
important skill that is developed through teaching is communication skills. Various activities
are developing in schools that help in communicating with each other. Group projects are
given to the student in which they talk with each other and develop their communication
skills. Now a day, students are more interested in more extracurricular activities (Borich,
2016). Leadership skills can be learned by motivating students to participate in
extracurricular activities. By including students in groups and further encouraging them to
developing leadership helps a person to grow in their early age. All these activities are given
more focus in schools so that they can learn diversifies skills that will groom them further.
Besides this, self-motivation activities in classrooms are the first step that develops the strong
ability of self-motivation in students. Classroom activities enhance the collaboration skills of
a person by knowing the importance of teamwork. In these activities, some persons learn how
to praise others as well as how to solve the conflicts. A leader that a person can learn from

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teaching requires all these things. From a report, it is founded that great teachers are always
great leaders (Concordia University, 2018). Besides teaching, an observation also helps a
person to learn leadership skills. It helps a person to learn the leadership skills or develop
their skills. It means observing someone else behaviour, work, attitude. Say for example, if a
person is keen to become the captain in cricket. In order to lead team members, he is required
to adopt those leadership skills that will make a leader. Through observation, a person can
learn about his attitude, behaviour as well by seeing that person way of leading team
members. By making a map of that person skill in mind, a person can become an effective
team leader. In this way, leaders can be made also by observing the role model (Miner, 2015).
According to Reece & Walker, (2016) training is a way to enhance the knowledge and
skills of employees. By providing training to employees, people learn various skills that can
groom their personality. It is seen that almost every organization provides training to its
employees. Through training, many employees learn various new methods of doing the task.
Various organizations provide leadership training in order to provide growth opportunities. It
is essential for the organization to discover various activities that help employees in
improving their communication skills. Training also helps employees to motivate at the
workplace and work hard. Working hard in an organisation leads to getting recognition.
Leadership skills can be learned and taught. Persons have some leadership skills but
specific skills are required by a person in order to lead a particular person. Great man theory
was in the belief that great leaders are always born they can’t be made (Fairman &
Mackenzie, 2015). Over the few years, many theories came into existence that entertained
that it is not necessary that good leaders are always born but they can also acquire the skills.
This is referred to in the “Behavioural theory.” It mainly focused on the behavioural pattern
of the person rather on their physical, social and mental characteristics (Rosenbach, 2018).
After then, other theories have been analysed including the contingency theories that are
based on the leadership style in particular situation, the transformational theory that relies on
the sense of belonging and trust, transactional leadership that is based on the reward and
punishment approach. Despite all these theoretical approaches, the modern approach of
leadership states that leaders are not necessarily born with leadership skills in order to
become a leader but good leadership qualities can be acquired by the efforts of the person
(Now Grenada, 2013). In order to enhance the leadership skills, seminars, conferences, and
workshops prove to be a better mean. By organizing seminars, the person can represent their

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speaking skills and can attract members towards it. A seminar is also a great tool to present
the ideas and skills in front of audiences. In this way, it is also a great way through which
person can learn communication skills by speaking in front of the audience.
It is analysed there are some important skills take to make a person leader-
1. Vision- In order to become a good leader, an individual must train him or her where it
wants to take the organization. In this way, there must be a clear vision in mind for becoming
a successful leader (Buj, 2012). In order to become the leader, it is necessary to make a clear
path for the team members that they will follow. It is necessary to create such goals that they
seek valuable. In order to become a successful leader, it will time to explain the goals in
detail.
2. Integrity- in order to become a successful leader, the individual is required to have a
strong belief regarding the positive side of the vision (Buj, 2012). Positivity is the most
important criteria that can help a person to achieve something. If a person has determined
something and working hard for that, it will definitely achieve it.
3. Utilization of strengths and gifts- every person has some unique strength and gift inborn.
In order to become a leader, the realization of these strengths and gifts is necessary.
According to Buj, (2012) every person is born with some unique qualities. It requires a
person to sees his abilities and start working on it.
4. Positive attitude- it is understood that “nobody respects a negative person.” leader can
acquire the skill of seeing positivity in every aspect in order to become a leader. Positivity
keeps a person happier and it will help to surround by positive people.
5. Communication skills- Better leadership skills include being able to communicate the
goals, skills, vision, the expectation to other in a better way. The person can acquire all these
skills during the learning phase of life (Allio, 2015). For example- there are many activities
held by schools and universities that can improve the communication skills of the individual.
By taking part in those activities, communication skills can prove effective.
6. Setting of goals and following actual action plan- it is not necessary that a person has all
the leadership skills from childhood. By setting the appropriate goals and following them in a
proper manner leads a person to achieve that goal. A behavioural theory also states that
leadership is not only meant for a few people. it depends on the personal behaviour and skills.

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7. willingness to admit and learn from failures as well as a weakness- in order to become a
successful leader, it is essential to accept the failures coming on the way. Many people treat
the failure as their strength and work on that failure. This attitude helps the person to fight
with those weaknesses.
In this way, some people are born with some special skills but people can acquire the various
skills by learning through people and observing the outside environment. However, some
people have special skills like confidence, communication skills, positive attitude, and
boldness from childhood. People can learn various leadership skills in their school life too by
participating in various activities.
In the limelight of the above discussion, it can be concluded that there are some
persons who are born with some special qualities in them. those skills include a positive
attitude, self-confidence, communication skills. Besides this, there are various skills needed
for a person to become a good leader. It is not necessary that a person not born with these
skills cannot become leaders. The person can learn various leadership skills through
education and training. Teaching proves to be the greater tool in an initial stage of life to
learn leadership skills. Through teaching, students learn communication skills and better
methods to lead its members. Several group activities are also involved in teaching which
helps students to learn how to work in collaboration and guide others on the right path. In
today’s education system, students are provided with various extra activities that groom the
personality of students that help them in acquiring some leadership skills. The behavioural
theory states that leadership is not only meant for those persons who are born with some
special skills. Every person can learn leadership skills by applying their knowledge and skills.
Therefore, behaviour theory has like the behaviour of people with skills.

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