NAME: MUZIWAKHE M GOQOLO

DEPARTMENT: COMMERCE
PROGRAM: BACHELOR OF HONOR’S DEGREE IN
ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE
FORMAT: CONVECTIONAL
CODE: COBM 1205
LEVEL: 1.2
COURSE: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
LECTURER: MR V. SHUMBA
STUDENT ID NUMBER: L0191941S
QUESTION: LEADERS ARE BORN OR MADE. DISCUSS?
DUE DATE: 6 April 2020

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A leader is an individual whose work is to guide others into achieving a common goal. A leader
shows others the way by examples and creates an environment that makes other team members
feel involved in the whole process (Jonathan, G, Ian, S, & Stephanie, J., 2012). According to
(Donelly, J. H. & Ivancevich, J. M. & Gibson, J.L., 1985) a leader is a person who influences the
activities of followers through the communication processes and toward the attainment of some
goal or goals. Being a leader comes in different forms, and there are certain criteria that one has
to meet to become one. This may involve the roles, features, characteristics or traits of becoming
a leader.
There are important roles that a leader must play to the success of the team and organization as a
whole. There are times when a leader have to serve as a facilitator to help processes flow better
and boost productivity, thus marking things easier for others. They have to be strategically, that
is by keeping the big picture in mind and plot what directions and approaches the team should
use to reach the desired results. Moreover, leaders must have a vision, a picture of where they are
heading and must know if the destination they are heading to, matters to the organization, their
team and themselves. Leaders must be decision makers, meaning that they must be decisive and
ready to make hard choices regardless of how difficult the situations is, the decision must be
made. A leader must be a listener, meaning that being a leader is not about doing the talking all
the time, but it’s all about talking less, listening to people that you lead and observing more.
Furthermore, leaders must respect people they work with, that is, treating people with respect on
a daily basis is one of most important things a leader can do. By doing so, this will ease tension
and conflict, thus creating trust, and improving effectiveness. Respect is more than the absence
of disrespect, and it can be shown in many different ways. Leaders can show respect to their
subordinates by the way they address them, and the way they greet them which is one of the
aspect where respect emerge.
Leaders must be influential, that is, they must be able to convince people through logical,
emotional, or cooperative appeals is a component of being an inspiring, effective leader.
Influence is different from manipulation as leaders will be influencing their subordinates in
taking one direction to achieve the organization’s objective, and influence needs to be done
authentically and transparent. It requires emotional intelligence and trust-building. Moreover,
gratitude is also one of the characteristics that a leader must possess. Being grateful or giving
thanks can make one a better leader. Gratitude may lead to higher self-esteem, which is
recognition for work done well by Maslow’s hierarch of needs.
Communication is also an important aspect of a leader. As a leader, one must be able to
communicate in variety of ways, from transmitting information to coaching subordinates.
Leaders must know when to use formal communication or when to use informal communication.
This helps even the subordinates to understand and be able to tell when things get serious by
judging the way their leaders are talking or addressing them. Additionally, when a leader is
communicating with its employees, it is important to clarify any, and every information that is

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communicated to the employees so that they understand and catch the right information because
the leader is sound and clear.
A good leader delegate part of the work to be done to its employees since it is a core concept of a
leader. Delegation is all about the assignment of authority to another person to carry out specific
activities. The goal about delegation isn’t about just to free yourself up, it’s also to enable your
direct reports, facilitate teamwork, provide autonomy, and lead to better decision-making and
motivation. By delegating work to subordinates thus leading to improved moral of the one
accountable resulting in productivity. For a leader to delegate, first he had to build trust with his
employees and be sure that whoever the task is going to be delegated to, is someone responsible.
Lastly and most important of all, a good leader needs to lead from the front so as to set a good
example to the followers (Olson, 2009).
“Leaders are born”
Leaders are born not made, that is, they are born with basic leadership skills and these skills are
improved through experience and learning from other leaders (Northouse, 2007). There are a
number of scholars that side that leaders are born not made. One of the proofs is that leaders are
noticed when that are still very young. There are children who are always on standby to assume
command while they are still at their primary level of education and leadership to them appear to
be running in their bodies or veins (Waldman, A, Bernard, M, & Walter, E, 2009). These child
leaders are with features that are greatly desired for an exciting and unusual experience and
thinks very quickly whenever they are on the field. They are always ready to a positions of
accountability, for example, by becoming a class monitor. This is a clear fact that leaders are
born with leadership features in them.
Great man’s theory also supports that great leaders are born with certain traits such as
confidence, intelligence, social skills and charm that can inspire devotion in others and these
characteristics make them leaders who are naturally born (Waldman, 2009).
Contingency theory has a relationship with trait theory in supporting the belief that great leaders
are born. According to the theory, the quality of leadership is determined by the environment
where leadership is experienced (Arvey, R, Rotundo, M, Johson, W, Zhang, Z & McGue, M,
2006). It is because of the inborn characteristics that makes leaders respond to different types of
environments. For example, a leader who is able to change will express good leadership skills
regardless of whether the followers are responsive or not. Therefore, in order for a leader not to
be greatly influenced by the environment of operation, he should be able to adjust to different
environments a feature which a leader is born with (Gurriello, 2008).
Born leadership can be evidenced from the history books as people who went down as great
leaders. One example of these leaders is Benito Mussolini between the years 1883 and 1945.
Mussolini was a politician credited for leading the National Fascist in Italy (Jacobs, 2006).
Mussolini was a well know leader and his leadership which was featured by courage was inborn.

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He did not go to any school for leadership training. The leadership skills displayed by Benito are
clear piece of information that leaders are born with leadership skills (Bennis, W, & Joan, G,
2008).
There are other theories that are in support of born leadership and these are relationship and
contingency theory. Relationship theory emphasizes on the relationship between followers and
leaders. Since leaders are accountable for motivating and inspiring their followers, they need to
have the right features in them and social traits are in-borne and they are hard to maintain
through training. Being social is a feature that is vital in creating good working relationship
between leaders and their subordinates (Conger, 2009).
Lastly, (Swaroop, K.R. & Prasad, N.G.A, 2013) argues that leadership can either be a talent or
skill. This then make it clear that leaders are born not made because a talent is what a person is
born with together with the skill. Theories like the trait theory supports that leadership is inborn.
This theory assumes that the traits give rise to certain behaviours that are consistent in different
situations. According to the theory, leaders are born with certain traits that develop with time
(Colbert, A, Judge, T, Choi, D, & Wang, G, 2012).
However other scholars argues that leaders are not born but made. According to (Allio, 2005),
leadership is not a skill used in deceiving others that schools can teach but it can surely be
learned. There are a variety of programs, for instance, leadership programmes that can be used to
improve skills among individuals and also educate them to demonstrate acts of leadership. The
author believes that the role of a good leader includes establishing values, developing visions and
the necessary strategies, and initiating changes that are necessary to bring growth to the
orgaisation. In addition, the author stresses the importance of effective leadership behaviours
among leaders.
It is clear fact that one cannot force another to become a leader by any means if there is no desire
from the other to lead. Therefore, leadership can be instilled into someone by giving them
support, providing them with management education and opportunities to improve their
leadership skills (Allio, 2005). This is why organisations invest a lot of money and resources in
leadership training programmes. They normally send potential individual to those leadership
training programmes with the hope that they will improve their leadership skills. These
programmes improves the participant’s self-esteem, give them cognitive experience, as well as,
as polishing their communication skills. These programs do have failures, thus why any plans to
develop must include processes for identifying candidates with the required skills and motivation
to assume leadership roles (Allio, 2005). When selecting candidates one should look for the key
characteristics like morality, potential for growth, positive attitude, and strong motivation.
Potential leaders must show that they are willing to achieve results, have positive values and
motives, and most of all should demonstrate the capacity in the leadership position (Association
of Chartered Certified Accountants n.d., 2015). This demonstrates that leadership behaviours are
modelled over time.

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Lastly, scholars argue that the environment has an influence on the leadership capabilities of
individuals. The environment guides leaders by providing opportunities and experiences that
shape their leadership capabilities. Leadership capabilities are acquired through experience that
challenge individuals to be innovative, adaptive, and inspiring (Allio, 2005). The author
emphasizes that great leaders are evaluated on the basis of what they achieve rather than qualities
and leadership styles. (Dongen, 2014) Supports the argument that leaders are made and
encourages organizations to invest sufficient resources into leader development programmes.
Conclusion
Leaders are born with leadership traits and, training is only meant to improve leadership skills,
meaning that, in order for one to be a good leader, he has to be born with basic leadership traits.
This basic traits are then improved through learning and experience. According to (Bennis, W, &
Joan, G, 2008) it is not possible to mold a leader from the start. From the theories discussed
above, it does not mean that training is not important in leadership, it means that training can be
used as a tool to enhance skills and qualities for leaders. Leaders are born with all the required
internal features such as intelligence, confidence, social skills and charisma and these features
make them leaders who are naturally born (Waldman, 2009).
It’s possible for one with inborn leadership qualities to learn, and be successful, and lead
effectively. However to a small proportion that leaders are taught so that they became good
leaders. People with inborn leadership qualities use a number of ways to improve on their
leadership traits because these skills are obtain throughout the entire life of a person. They
improve on their leadership skills by observing and studying other leader and then taking into
practice the results from their observation. There are other ways of an inborn leader to improve
his skills, for example, by looking at their role models and mentors. (Anton, 2004) advocates
that, these leaders might enhance their skills further by enquiring from experienced leaders about
how they handle different situations. Good leaders always struggle to ensure that they improve
the leadership skills that they have. Therefore, good leaders have inborn leadership traits which
can be improved further through experience (Anderson, 2012).

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