Leaders: Born or Made?

This is the most basic and most often-asked question about leadership. To cut to the chase, the answer is: mostly made.

The best estimates offered by research is that leadership is about one-third born and two-thirds made. The job of leading an organization, military unit, or nation, and doing so effectively, is fantastically complex. To expect that a person would be born with all of the tools needed to lead just doesn't make sense based on what we know about the complexity of social groups and processes.

The fact that leadership is mostly made is good news for those of us involved in leadership development: Leaders can indeed be developed. Yet there is some "raw material," some inborn characteristics, that predispose people to be and become leaders.

Research suggests, for example, that extraversion is consistently associated with obtaining leadership positions and leader effectiveness. There is also some evidence that being bold, assertive, or risk-taking can be advantageous for leaders. Leaders also need to be able to analyze situations and figure out courses of action, and so intelligence is associated with leadership, although perhaps not general IQ but social intelligence — an understanding of social situations and processes — is the component most important for leadership. Finally, some sort of empathy, or ability to know one's followers, is also advantageous for leaders, although much of this is learned. As leadership scholar Bernard Bass noted, "The leader must be able to know what followers want, when they want it, and what prevents them from getting what they want."

Does this mean that introverts, persons of average social intelligence, or those of us who are not particularly empathic will not make good leaders? Certainly not. Remember: Most of leadership is made, not born. So if you aspire to positions of leadership, the best course is to embark on a leader self-development plan.

Fortunately, there is tremendous interest in leadership and in leader development, and there has lately been a strong emphasis on self-development for leaders. Rather than getting leadership development from a costly program or your employer (development/training budgets have been cut deeply), you can embark on your own development program.

Below are some resources for self-development, as well as references/links to the research on leaders born vs. made.

A terrific guidebook to leader self-development is Bruce Avolio's Leadership Development in Balance: MADE/Born

The research on born vs. made was done with studies of identical twins:

• Arvey, R. D., Rotundo, M., Johnson, W., Zhang, Z., & McGue, M. (2006). The determinants of leadership role occupancy: Genetic and personality factors. Leadership Quarterly, 17, 1-20.
• Arvey, R. D., Zhang, Z., Avolio, B. J., & Kreuger, R.F. (2007). Developmental and genetic determinants of leadership role occupancy among women. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 693-706.