Leadership Thought Paper

Leadership Thought Paper

Introduction

Leadership is an important concern in the contemporary world. But, there are a few misconceptions about leadership which the following paper discusses and analyses.

Discussion

Are leaders born or created?

It has been a never ending debate or a controversy about whether the leaders learn to become superior communicators or have the natural abilities of leadership. Recently, it was being stated in the online edition of the Wall Street Journal that there is an immediate need for the businesses to have strong leaders in order to ensure that business operates smoothly (Stephenson, 2004). The edition forces the businesses to focus more on nurturing the interpersonal skills of the employees during their training programs so that they have an increased proficiency in this area. Another important concern is whether these communication abilities are inherent or are learned through training programs (Stephenson, 2004).

One aspect highlighted the fact that a person who is not inclined to or is not interested in learning communication skills can never acquire the skill. At another instance, it has been seen that business schools are the keen providers of communication related trainings, but they are both concerned about the students with good communication skills as well as those with poor communication skills and looks forward to refine their skills (Stephenson, 2004).

The research firm for creative leadership carried out a global survey and came to the conclusion that leaders are made rather than being one through genetics i.e. 52.4%. The minority of 19.1% believed that leaders are born simply (Brookmire, 2012). The remaining were of the opinion that leaders are created as a result of the combination of the two factors i.e. there are many leaders who have excellent skills and are intelligent than they work hard to gain experience and maximize their interest areas. Leaders are required to acquire training from time to time else their successes may decline (Stephenson, 2004). This has led to leadership being regarded as the billion dollar market today, where executives lay stress on managing the leaders and gain feedback (Brookmire, 2012).

Do men and women lead differently?

Over the last century, women were regarded to be the owners of their house and stayed at home and cared for the family members and were engaged in fulfilling family responsibilities. As time has passed, women now have made progress within different fields of the workplace and the industry. Women now have become a part of almost all the fields in the United States of America (Zuckweiler, 2013). Looking at this growth, women have started to find leadership roles and have delivered the best results with success in their responsibility area. But, the question is do the women lead differently than the opposite gender or not.

According to Dr. Alive who is a top scholar teaching leadership roles, women are more likely to have the leadership skills that are strong than men and achieve success. Women are transformational and are focused on developing their own selves and then developing the followers through the stimulation of ...