Are Leaders Born or Made?

We know the answer

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, a military unit, or a 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.

You might ask, how do we know the answer to the born vs. made question? It comes from studies of identical twins15, and there is evidence that the actual leadership gene has been identified (but remember, this is only one part of leadership).

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. What are those? Extraversion, assertiveness, risk-taking, and intelligence (particularly social and emotional intelligences) are mostly innate and have been linked to effective leadership, but we need to be careful as the situation matters as well (e.g., assertiveness or risk-taking may work in some situations, but not in others). We will explore personality in more depth later.

For Development: Realize that genetics is not destiny. We can all develop our leadership capacity and overcome any inborn deficiencies. The link between extraversion and leadership? Some of history’s best leaders were introverts!