ARE LEADERS BORN OR MADE?

The trait approach also states that leaders are born.

The Behavioural approach ?

The behavioural approach is quite different than the trait approach, rather than concentrating on what leaders are, the behavioural approach focussed on what they do.  The behavioural approach started in the 1950s - 1960s, the behavioural approach was the second main theory regarding leaders.

The main research was conducted by two universities, Ohio State university and the University of Michigan.  (Jerry L Gray, Frederick A Starke 1988).

Both of the universities conducting the research had brought back similar results, as you can see from the illustrations:

a)

(Wilf H. Ratzburg 05)

As shown above, both universities identified two main leadership behaviours each.

The researchers from Ohio state found out that initiating structure and consideration.  The initiating structure behaviour establishes the formal line of communication as well as to determine how the tasks are to be performed.  The consideration behaviour shows that the leader tries to establish a warm and friendly environment.

On the other hand, the researchers from the Michigan found out the main leadership behaviours are employee-centred and production-centred.  The employee-centred behaviour is where the leader shows pleasure in ensuring an employee is satisfied with their job.  The production-centred behaviour is where the leader shows great interest in performance as well as explaining work procedures.

b)

(Wilf H. Ratzburg 05)

As shown above, the Ohio state showed the characteristics of both leadership behaviours.

The consideration behaviour shows that leaders with high morale and leaders of groups with lower productivity are the two characteristics which form the consideration behaviour.  

The Initiating structure behaviour shows that leaders of high producing groups, leaders rated highly by superiors and a high turnover are the three characteristics which form the initiating structure behaviour.

c)

To test managers for their preferred leadership behaviour, the Ohio State Studies developed two measures: (1) the LBDQ (Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire) and (2) the LOQ (Leader Opinion Questionnaire).

(Wilf H. Ratzburg 05)

As shown above, two questionnaires were given out to managers to find the preferred leadership behaviour.  The Leadership Behaviour Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) and the Leader Opinion Questionnaire (LOQ).  The LBDQ measured the perception of the leaders behaviour and the LOQ measured the perception of the leaders own style.

The results from both universities partially showed that leaders are made, but are they ?

According to Professor Adrian Furnham 2005, the behavioural approach formed two types of typologies: the autocratic leader and the democratic leader.  An autocratic leader is where a leader has as much power and decision-making authority as possible, employees are not consulted nor do they have right to give any input.  On the other hand, an democratic leader is the complete opposite of the autocratic leader.  An democratic leader would prefer his employees giving as much input as possible even though the leader would have the final say.  However, these two types of typologies, according to Professor Adrian Furnham 2005, were formed by personality and ability.

Therefore, the behavioural approach partially states leaders are born successful.

Charismatic leadership

‘A certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These are such as are not accessible to the ordinary person, but are regarded as of divine origin or as exemplary, and on the basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a leader’ (Max Weber 1922)

The definition of charismatic leadership, given by Max Weber 1922, describes a charismatic leader as some with ‘a certain quality of personality’ and the he goes on to say that ‘these are not accessible to the ordinary person’; the two phrases mean that charismatic leadership comes from the inside, it is beyond the reach of someone who is trying to learn the skill.  Therefore, through Max Weber’s definition, he has made it clear that leaders are born with this type of leadership skill and it can not be learnt in any way possible.

An example of someone who possessed the charismatic leadership skill is, Muhammad Ali.  Muhammad Ali is not charismatic from his fights or the number of world titles he has held but to the fact that he was an excellent speaker.  Muhammad Ali had was untouchable, no one could touch when he spoke, the whole world be shook up when he spoke.  His body language, the way he used to move around made him an charismatic leader and I doubt even if someone said the exact same words he said, they wouldn’t have gotten a response like him, since it was from inside.

Leaders are born successful !

Leaders can be trained

According to many, leadership is a bunch of skills that can be learned through various different ways.

Paul Brewerton 2005, believes that leadership skills can be learned.  Some of the key skills that successful leaders have are:

- Powerful Communication

Powerful communication is a must when wanting to become a successful leader, you wouldn’t want to be a leader who mumbles or  be a leader who doesn’t affect people with the sound of their own voice.  When a leader speaks, everyone should pay interest automatically rather than asking for everyone to be quite.

- Inspire People

Inspiring people is also necessary, most successful leaders have a huge number of people wanting to become like them, which leads to a huge portion of followers.  Therefore it is very important to inspire people.

- Developing and Coaching

Leaders will need to have the skills to effectively train employees to receive a higher level of efficiency.  All leaders will need to develop and improve their employees on a consistent basis in order to become successful.  Otherwise, the leader will be at the same position over and over again.

- Networking

As a leader, you will have to work with a variety of different people, both inside and outside of your group; this will make it necessary to learn how to do this in order to balance both sides consistently and effectively.

- Handling Emotions

Nearly every leader will have faced a variety of different emotions from its employees, but handling them is another matter.  A successful leader will most definitely have to handle conflicts and other behaviours during work.

Any leader who has such skills listed above will have gained a higher revenue of growth, achieved a high efficiency level and would also have achieved profitability within their team.  But, how can someone achieve the skills listed above and are there any obstacles in achieving these skills.  The only obstacle in achieving these skills is yourself, nobody can tell you how successful or smart you can be except you.

Achieving these skills take up a lot of time, since you will need to practise these skills regularly.  Self confidence is very important when trying to learn these skills, if you are not confident, you will not achieve these skills and wouldn’t become a successful leader.  The same with motivation, motivation will be needed because since learning the skills to become a successful leader is ever lasting, every leader will have to improve as they go along therefore motivation will be highly regarded.  A plan is also needed, planning on learning the key skills each step at a time is proven to be better than jumping straight into the deep end.  A goal and a target will also achieve the key skills, working to a specific regime where you complete each skill at a time while improving that new skill which you’ve just completed.  (Paul Brewerton 2005)

Some famous leaders who fit into this theory are: Richard Branson, Sir Alan Sugar and George W. Bush.  George W. Bush is known for not being the smarted person on the block, even though he’s the President of the United State of America (USA).  George W. Bush has a team of people advising him constantly throughout various obstacles that he faced, from these obstacles thrown at him he is still the President, but how?  This is because he has learnt a lot of leadership skills throughout the time he was being advised and used them to his advantage to gain a huge portion of the United States of America in his favour.

Leaders can be trained to become successful!

Leaders are successful when they share a social identity with its followers

Professor Alex Haslem 2005, argued that leadership is not about personality or having certain traits within themselves, its all about leaders and its followers sharing a social identity.

Social Identity is a theory developed by Tajfel and Turner in 1979 to understand the psychological basis of intergroup discrimination (Wikipedia 1).  The theory is composed of three different variables:

- Categorisation: This is where we put others into groups.

- Identification: This is where we associate ourselves with a certain group.

- Comparison: This is where we compare our group with another.

According to Professor Alex Haslem 2005, without social identity, there cannot be a leader.  Any leader, in order to become successful, will have to make a group where we (as followers) would have to categorise, identify and compare ourselves as part of that group.  In order words, a leader will have to make us (followers) understand that there “group” isn’t about them, its about us; this is what attracts followers and this is what makes leaders successful.  For example, people like: Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi or even Tony Blair shared a sense of social identity before he lost the plot and started to referring to many things as “I” rather than “Us”, which led to Tony Blair losing a ton of faithful followers.

During the elections for the position of Prime Minister or President, the winner would have a greater social identity than its oppositions.  The person that is declared Prime Minister or President would have talked about how “we” or “us” would make a difference during the next couple of years rather than bragging about how they, themselves “I” would make a difference.  

This is a known factor of successful leaders, we (as followers) are the main difference between a successful leader and a not so successful leader.  So, leaders are successful when they share an social identity with its followers.

Leaders are  (The verdict !) …

Are leaders born successful, or can they be trained to become successful or are they successful only when they share a social identity with their followers ?

Well, the answer is all three of them.  Yes, I know, all the fuss over nothing if the answer is all three of them.   If you look at each proposition logically, you will see that they are all linked.  A successful leader will have to be born with certain attributes, but some of the attributes can be learned through various courses but not all of them, as well as sharing social identity; without a social identity there won’t be a leader.  

But, if I were to choose one over the other, I would choose that leaders are successful when they share a social identity with their followers.  I personally believe that is only one trait of a leader, its followers.  It doesn’t even matter if leaders are born or if they can be trained to become successful, they both approximately share the same variables and key skills needed to become successful but if they don’t share an social identity with their leaders, they can throw these skills in the bin because they won’t be of any use.  Without a social identity with is followers, there won’t be a successful leader.

Can you imagine what would’ve happened if people like: Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Winston Churchill didn’t share a social identity with its followers; they would’ve been just another person with a dream, even though one can argue that they were born, or learnt with certain skills that are hard to come by without anyone followers, I doubt they would be what they are.

In the future, it will be impossible to create a new theory regarding leaders since the number of leaders is on an all time high.  As time changes the view of leadership will also change, so there will never be a definite answer to the question.  The quote below emphasizes my point exactly:

‘Unfortunately, in real time, it is unclear who will be known as visionaries and who will be known as failures’  (Quoted by Professor Alex Haslem 2005 from Nadler an Tushman)

References/Bibliography

Citation:

(Daniel Goleman. 2002)

Reference:
Goleman, D.  (2002).  Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence

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Citation:

(Jerry L Gray, Frederick A Starke 1988).

Reference:

(Gray, J L.  Starke, F A. (1988).  Organizational Behavior: Concepts and Applications, 3rd Edition

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Citation:

(Professor Alex Haslem 2005)

Reference:

Naked Science: Are Leaders Born or Made? (Video) (2005)

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Citation:

(Wikipedia 1)

Reference:

Social Identity:

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Citation:

(Wilf H. Ratzburg 05)

Reference:

Ratzburg, W H. (2005).  Behavioural Theory

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Citation: (Professor Adrian Furnham 2005)

Reference:

Naked Science: Are Leaders Born or Made? (Video) (2005)

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Citation: (Max Weber 1922)

Reference: Weber, M. (1922).  Theory of Social and Economic Organization. Chapter: "The Nature of Charismatic Authority and its Routinization"

Citation: (Paul Brewerton 2005 )

Reference: Reference:

Naked Science: Are Leaders Born or Made? (Video) (2005)

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Other Books and Websites used:

- John Bratton: Work and Organizational Behaviour

- Victor H. Vroom and Phillip W. Yetton: Leadership and Decision-Making

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