¿Is a Leader Born or Made?

@VirtualVariety - 14/12/21

A question we are always asked in our schools, universities, or even in the workplace. For many, it is tedious to answer it, because each one of us has a different answer or sees leadership differently, however for us to answer suitably or correctly we need to know something primordial. ¿What is Leadership?.

Definicion.de tells us: "The word leadership defines an influence that is exerted on people and that allows to encourage them to work enthusiastically for a common goal. Whoever exercises leadership is known as a leader".

Many will agree that a leader influences, however, we have to evaluate whether that influence is positive or negative because for some people Mr. Hitler was a leader because he came to power through a popular vote, but taking into account his history we can agree that he influenced negatively to his environment, we all know his tragic end and what led to all this sad process. Taking this into account we can think that anyone can be a leader, you just need to know how to connect with the people, how to be in the same tune with them. Sounds easy, ¿doesn't it?.

But it is not, to become leaders we need certain characteristics. For the European Graduate Institute (IEP) these are the most suitable characteristics that a good leader should have:

• Ability to set objectives

• Humility and tolerance

• Learning

• Responsible

• Charisma

• Communicative person

• Social skills

Among other characteristics, however, we highlight the most important, it is noteworthy that the world is full of Leaders or Leaders people who unite for a common cause to achieve that goal, but the funny thing is that these people before reaching that maximum level of Leadership have all these characteristics, but when they are at the top of the mountain lose many, forget their humility and tolerance, lose those social skills where you have to show empathy, to put yourself in the shoes of those people who follow them. Many forget that without those people they would not be in the position they are in, in those characteristics I would add something primordial: Not having short-term memory. We cannot forget who helps us, who believes in us, and who is there for better or worse.

As we mentioned before, the world is full of really valuable leaders whose love for their cause, whose passion for their objectives has led them to do great deeds that perhaps today are forgotten:

• Harriet Tubman - This anti-slavery woman despite her health problems, her condition as a slave, never stopped or limited herself to become a free woman and fight for all the slaves in the United States, such was her leadership that she managed to free more than 700 slaves and join the U.S. Army to achieve such a feat, she was the first woman of color to join the army.

@Source

• Alexander the Great - If we move into ancient history, we come across this great man who with his level of leadership managed to conquer half the world, explore and even leave a legacy, is considered the most powerful leader in the world, with his empire of Macedonian conquered places that many saw impossible Greece, India, Egypt, and others.

@Source

Taking into account the history of these people, we can say that a leader is born but this does not mean that someone without that knowledge or innate skills can not become a leader, of course, yes, just that it will cost more and will have to put a lot of desire and devote one hundred percent to leadership. But let's not go that far, in our home, there will always be someone who has those leadership skills, someone who is influencing the whole family, who has solutions to any problem and somehow involves everyone to solve those problems.

"A great leader is not necessarily the one who does great things. It's the person who gets others to do them." - Ronald Reagan

A memorable phrase, because many of us think that only those who achieve great things are Leaders, but we take away merits those people who influence in such a way people to the point that others make dreams come true, achieve valuable objectives and meet goals, for example, there are teachers that we should call them Educational Leaders because they influence so positively in the students that make them see and believe that nothing is impossible, that anything they propose they will achieve. In our cases we have those leaders close to our parents, we have to take into account that our parents should be our biggest and best influence. After all, it will depend on what we see, what we live and learn at home to walk this path called Life, if our influence is bad, we will understand why we always hit the same stone because we are so limited and full of insecurities.

We are all leaders at heart, although we do not see it that way, so we have to be careful when we speak when we exercise any action, and more if it influences others, because a bad influence can be harmful, although we do not believe it we are all influenceable and more in this Digital Age where social networks are gaining more space in our lives every day.

For example in this platform Read.Cash we can notice that many leaders have the gift of positively influencing many of us who take the time to read their articles, to comment, to follow them, among other things. So maybe they don't know it, but every article they share, every topic they talk about causes an influence on all those who read them, they have that innate leadership there waiting to be exploited.