“Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” – Peter Drucker
Let me start this article by sharing my view on leadership. As a neuro-speaker and trainer, where I interact with several leaders at different levels on how to use science to lead better, I particularly get to be asked a lot about whether leaders are born or made.
Well, based on my understanding of neuroscience and the broader experience I’ve acquired over the years, I can safely say that leadership is partly genetic and partly nurtured. I do not believe that it should be seen from an either-or perspective.
My reasoning behind this is that I’ve seen so many people who are highly trained in a field or space of leadership but are poor leaders. I have also experienced a number of those without or the least amount of formal leadership training who are much better leaders than the highly formally trained ones, which explains my view.
One thing though about leadership is that great leadership is about integrity, humility and competence. Yet, there’s something about being bold and confident that pushes someone to drive innovation, break rules and challenge norms.
A great leader inspires and motivates those they lead to believe in themselves and create a conducive environment for them to perform at their highest level by not standing their way.
From the above data and my personal experiences, I can safely say that leadership is a combination of personality/genetic disposition and training and should not be viewed from a place of either/or, but as a combination of both.
“Everything has its limit; iron-ore cannot be educated into gold,” Mark Twain.
