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Are great leaders born or made ?


UM-Bot

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What does it take to be a great leader and how does one go about accomplishing that ?

 

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My answer... Both... While leadership is (seemingly) a natural talent of some - though upbringing can probably account for a large part of this - it is also a skill set that can be taught... The discussion should not be "Born or Made" but which is the more effective leader... A "Natural Born Leader" or a "Made" trained leader?...

Charisma is the one part that probably can not be taught...

Edited by Taun
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UM-Bot, are you talking about leaders of nations or leaders in schools and in the workplace? Because what is required of each of the two is very different. A truly great leader of a nation(or a religion), would probably be born that way (i.e. their family, friends and teachers would notice something different about them quite early on), but would also be bright enough and humble enough to know that they will never stop learning.

Truly great leaders don't seem to exist other than to rise up out of the crowd for a specific situation. I'm thinking of Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela ........ and now my mind has gone blank! :lol:

Truly great leaders know that they have to behave in an exemplary fashion and hold themselves to higher standards than the rest of us because they have been given such a huge responsibility and they affect the lives of so many.

Unfortunately, today's sorry excuses for leaders seem to be the lowest of the low.

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1 hour ago, UM-Bot said:

What does it take to be a great leader and how does one go about accomplishing that ?

 

A great leader is someone who excels at both leadership and management.

Excelling at Leadership

With leadership ask yourself why would people choose to follow you? If your answer is because you will force, coerce, bully or manipulate them into doing so then you don't understand what leadership is about. Leadership is about getting people to choose to follow you and the only way to achieve that is to make it about them. The great leader is someone who understands this so they present a vision of the future where the masses will get their psychological needs met if they choose to follow them.

With 95% of aspiring leaders they fail here because they think its about their own ego. Hence the reason why they are left trying to force, coerce, bully and manipulate people that aren't interested into following them. Unfortunately this approach only results in the failing leader making people resent them. So they are left with people who not only aren't interested in following them but who also hate the failing leader.

A persons personality type (with the great leader scoring high at altruism) is something they are largely born with. Models about human psychological needs can be taught. However the intellectual ability to understand those concepts is again something people are born with. Finally a great leader is someone that listens to the people so that as many of them as possible are happy with the vision of the future chosen so as to avoid Jon Snow incidents.

Excelling at Management

Having a vision of the future where the population gets its psychological needs met is pointless if the leader doesn't know how to coordinate the actions of everyone towards making the desired outcome happen. To begin with a plan of how to get there is needed, then the great leader needs to structure the large group of people effectively, then the plans need to be communicated downwards giving each level or section in that structure stepped targets to be achieved. Diagnostic control needs to be implemented where performance against those stepped targets can be evaluated allowing corrective actions to be taken when needed as the ship sails along its course. Or even allowing the destination of the ship to be adjusted.

All of that can be taught if the person has been born with the intellectual capacity to understand it. However the leaders ability to sail the ship to its destination is also dependant on appointing the right people into management positions within the organisational structure. The managers chosen need to have good man management and interpersonal skills so unlike ego-centric self absorbed alternatives they don't cause resentment amongst the followers. That requires the correct personality types (which people are largely born with). On top of this they either need to have been taught all of the above, or to be trained in it, which means they need to be bright enough to understand it (intellectual potential is a born trait).

Conclusion

So to conclude something things you need to be born with and if you are then you can be taught the rest. And on top of that the great leader is someone who chooses the right people (directly or indirectly by setting policies on organisational recruitment) to help manage and lead the followers to the destination.

Edited by RabidMongoose
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20 hours ago, ouija ouija said:

UM-Bot, are you talking about leaders of nations or leaders in schools and in the workplace? Because what is required of each of the two is very different. A truly great leader of a nation(or a religion), would probably be born that way (i.e. their family, friends and teachers would notice something different about them quite early on), but would also be bright enough and humble enough to know that they will never stop learning.

Truly great leaders don't seem to exist other than to rise up out of the crowd for a specific situation. I'm thinking of Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela ........ and now my mind has gone blank! :lol:

Truly great leaders know that they have to behave in an exemplary fashion and hold themselves to higher standards than the rest of us because they have been given such a huge responsibility and they affect the lives of so many.

Unfortunately, today's sorry excuses for leaders seem to be the lowest of the low.

Ouija - Don't confuse politicians with leaders... Leaders can be found everywhere - at work, on sports teams (of all levels), even on shopping trips!... A "Leader" is simply "One who leads" - A person who basically takes charge of a situation... Some step up and take charge on their own (the "Natural Leader") while others have it thrust upon them by the situation or job description...  Politicians are not in and of themselves "leaders"... They are making a performance  - not necessarily "Leading"... Yes many people follow them - but the majority of the time they are not actually leading....  (IMO)

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But that's my point! That's why I asked at the beginning of my post which sort of leader UM-Bot was talking about. If you visit other countries, representing your own country at the highest level and if you have the highest position in your government and make speeches with regard to how the country is to be run, foreign policy, etc. etc. then you really must be a great leader. You must be able to show people that the government is carrying out their wishes and present arguments as to why they, as a country, should consider this or that policy. You must be able to bind people together and persuade them to 'pull together' for the good of their country. And most important of all: you must lead by example!

I am an idealist with regard to this, I know, and it depresses me that the entire world is run by such a bunch of self-serving lowlifes without an ounce of common sense or decency between them.

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Um... asking the UM-Bot questions won't get any answers. It's a bot, all it does it post up the article. It's not a person that comes back and participates in the discussions.

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58 minutes ago, rashore said:

Um... asking the UM-Bot questions won't get any answers. It's a bot, all it does it post up the article. It's not a person that comes back and participates in the discussions.

But it has a gender and calls itself a 'news writer'! What sort of madness is this?! :o Does it also 'choose' which articles it will post?

(Excuse me, I have to go and lie down in a darkened room for a while) :wacko: 

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