Are leaders born or trained?

It is fair to say that leaders are made through experience and training. While some of us may be genetically inclined towards traits like confidence and empathy, honing these into worthwhile qualities is a process of learning. That said, we do not have loads of scientific resources on genetic links to leadership qualities.

However, a 2017 debate study discussed the role of twin studies in measuring natural leadership ability.

The study concluded that genetics do play a role in dictating someone’s personality, but only a small part, around 30%. The remaining influence, around 70%, comes from environmental factors, such as the way they are raised and their education.

What does this mean for those wanting to develop leaders through training programmes? It means you could send anyone on a training course, but it will work out better to identify people with natural abilities upon which you can build.

What are the essential qualities of a good leader?

Perhaps the five most important leadership qualities are:

• Integrity
• Self-awareness
• Empathy
• Resilience
• Adaptability

Integrity

Integrity might be the most important leadership quality, as it involves honesty, reliability and consistency. The importance of integrity for leaders is evident: those who lead should stick to their principles and be transparent in their actions and motivations.

While integrity can be seen as an innate trait, and people often possess honesty and trustworthiness naturally, it can also be developed. Although it might be challenging, it is possible to teach someone to be honest and open.

Self-awareness

This should be another no-brainer for good leaders. Being self-aware means understanding who you are and how your personality affects not only your behaviour but also the emotions and ideas of people around you. As such, it also makes it easier to communicate with people because you can understand how your perspective might influence the conversation.

It is fair to say that some people are more naturally inclined towards self-awareness than others. However, it is perfectly possible to teach it as a behaviour: it involves explaining the markers of self-awareness and teaching what to do with them. While it might take some time to become natural at it, it is perfectly possible to learn.

Empathy

Empathy stems from being self-aware. When you understand your actions, you are better equipped to understand others’ emotions. This can help you in making decisions that consider people’s feelings and the impact your actions might have.

It is therefore valuable for leaders to be empathetic. This is because their main purpose is to guide others to success, which means making decisions that impact others. While decisions are made with the organisation in mind, considering team members is just as important.

Resilience and adaptability

These two skills go together in good leaders. After all, leaders are decision makers on many different levels. Decisions can often not go to plan, so leaders need to know what to do next.

Resilience and adaptability are probably the two skills we can say are learned, because you only need to know them if you have faced failure. While some leaders might have the natural ability to think quickly, most learn how to be resilient and adapt specifically in a workplace context. The extent to which we are presented with decisions in work means many people pick these skills up with time and experience.

Can leadership be learned or are you born with it?

The bottom line is that pretty much all important leadership qualities can be taught. Having a natural desire to be a leader, combined with previously developed soft skills, certainly makes someone a better candidate for moving into leadership, though.

Leadership training programmes are designed to nurture candidates into successful leaders by developing existing skills. There are different ways to approach leadership training, but most programmes focus on teaching emotional awareness and strategic planning in different contexts.

The four key elements of leadership training

Training leaders involves targeting key areas and applying skills in real-life contexts. Depending on the people going through the training, the course will also involve developing innate abilities, such as confidence and self-awareness.

We can break leadership training down into four key areas that make for effective training programmes.

1. Goal-oriented training

An effective leadership training programme will adapt its content to the goals and context of the specific organisation. For example, a leadership training course for a large multinational firm would look completely different to, say, a smaller national company.

Adjusting the course’s content to the organisation means it can be goal-oriented. This is important because it means the trainee leaders will develop their skills in line with their company’s objectives, allowing them to align their thinking and leadership style with the company’s needs.

Similarly, being taught with specific goals in mind helps trainees to see the result of their training in action, helping them integrate more easily into the wider leadership structure once they start their new role.

2. Personalised learning

Personalised learning is arguably an offshoot of goal-oriented training. We can think of personalised training on both a macro and a micro level. First, there is the context mentioned above, where the training course is personalised to the company the trainees work for.

Second is adapting the training to the people taking part in the course. This means figuring out what they do well and what needs particular improvement to bring them all up to the same level of quality. For example, if someone needs further development in public speaking then their course will be adjusted accordingly. After all, leaders, particularly within the same organisation, should be consistent.

3. Continuous learning and support

Leadership development does not involve sitting a course and then jumping into work. Yes, you will send people on a training course to get them going, but you will need to build on this as they figure out how they want to develop their unique leadership style.

The fundamentals of leadership are fairly consistent, but there are always industry developments that are worth learning. Alongside this, leaders benefit from continued mentoring and coaching as well as further learning to hone their skills. After all, we can always get better at what we do.

Working on continuous learning is best done by fostering a culture of development and feedback combined with incentives for doing so. This is primarily the responsibility of the organisation, but the leadership training provider also plays a role.

4. Learning through engaging content

Leadership training can absolutely be dull. However, a good training programme will engage its users through various learning methods and different resources to maintain interest. Using mixed teaching methods also helps to engage different learning styles to keep everyone involved.

While this is not something an organisation would control, it is worth being mindful of the type of course they choose for their staff. Ideally, it should include digital and physical exercises, interactive sessions, case studies, role-playing and more to offer varied learning experiences that make it worth the time and financial investment.

What does a leadership training programme include?

Leadership training programmes typically involve nurturing a person’s existing skills and developing them to a level that is appropriate for a leader. This may involve, for example, learning new management styles, developing personal confidence and teaching self-awareness.

But it will also address broader topics, such as finding new ways to lead and understanding innovation. After all, leaders need to work at broad and specific levels, so training programmes must address all aspects of the role.

Developing leaders from within your organisation

It is important in the business world to know that leaders can be made. You might have perfect candidates within your organisation that you feel lack the core competencies of leaders, but that is exactly what leadership development programmes are for.

Developing these skills in a learning environment means consistency and ensures that the people you identify as potential leaders will be able to thrive in their new roles.