Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Leaders Made not Born
A quick one to stir up some thought. The age old question of whether leaders are made or born has always struck me as quite asinine. While there may very well be people who are more outgoing or have a higher aptitude in leadership type tasks, people never seem to think about character when they bring up this question. True leaders are servant leaders and it takes more than a silver tongue and charisma to pull that off. Leading by fear and lies can only hamstring an organization in the end. To me, the real question is whether you are born with character or it is made within you. I think that most people will agree that character is a product of experience and upbringing rather than being born as some sort of shining light. I could not follow a leader without a good amount of character. Maybe when I was young I might have, but as I get older and gain responsibilities of my own I want to know that I will be taken care of and my efforts will be rewarded. If you look at your leaders and do not respect their character my advice would be to run as fast as you can away from the situation. A person like that cannot be convinced or persuaded past their own ambition and will leave you in ruins without a second thought. Better to take less money and be happy (although I believe you can have both). I have been blessed in my life to be surrounded by people of character...not perfect, but good. If you aren't surrounded by these types, you might want to re-evaluate your situation.
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3 comments:
I have just found this post. Very thought provoking. I know that as I have grown older I have become more discerning about who i might follow or be associated with.
Charismatic leaders - by their very nature - grab the headlines/get the attention. Most will also be good people - but in this age of celebrity some won't. I like the injection of character into the debate. I also like to include discussion about shared values. And a healthy interest in being able and willing to understand another person's point of view without having to agree with it.
Like you I have been surrounded in the main by people of good character since I was very young. Some of that forms part of who I am now. A challenge for the workplace - and I guess society in general - is how to expose younger people to people like that to help them develop into fine, clear thinking, moral , kind leaders themselves.
Thank Jackie, good points as well. One of the things I forgot to mention is I have also worked for the "Evil Charismatic Genius". I managed to get out of the situation without mutually assured destruction, but it was a close one.
Interesting post. I've had lot's of good leaders, with varying degrees of integrity. One of my biggest challenges was when I worked for a boss who was a person full of character, a true servant-leader; and she was also completely inept and in over her head. That didn't turn out too well for either of us.
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