The debate has always been a hot topic, are leaders born or are they made? Well, if you look to Vince Lombardi, former NFL Head Coach, he would believe that “leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.” (Vince Lombardi)
The textbook Leadership: Theory and Practice (Northouse, 2016) discusses the Skills model and how it relates to leadership. It provides information about a study conducted by the U.S. Army and the Department of Defense whose main goal was to identify and explain the underlying characteristics of effective performance. It wanted to know why there were variances in leadership in different scenarios and how those leaders adapted to those changing environments. Ultimately, it was meant to see if they could find out if those people in those leadership situations would either sink or swim.
The competencies the skills model represented throughout this study were problem-solving skills, social judgement skills, and knowledge. All of these combined were considered to be positively related to effective leadership. Without one, a leader failed in a certain area, not overall but led to a distinct difference in outcome.
Without defining each one of those competencies in detail and outlining the text book, I believe that leaders are made. There are certain “Individual attributes” that may allow someone to excel a little more in certain situations like motivation and personality, but you can still be a successful leader without having those prominent skills.
The thing I really like about the skills approach to leadership is that it takes into account a multitude of things to show an individuals’ true leadership ability. It takes into account knowing that the more a person “practices” being a leader, the better they will become at it and in the text it even references individuals playing tennis or golf and how they can get better simply through practice. Leadership isn’t just about getting up there and taking charge, leadership is about getting up there, understanding your subordinates and how they operate and then adjusting how you communicate both verbally and non-verbally towards them all the while directing them towards mission accomplishment.
If in the end, you are not an effective leader, your subordinates will “sound the alarm” to your senior leadership that new leader is required if mission is to be accomplished. At that point, your leadership skills may come in to question, not can you or can’t you lead but why weren’t you able to be successful at leading? This is a unique opportunity for you to then go back and “practice” those leadership skills in another area so that you can grow as a leader and eventually get back to where you were or even further up the chain of command. Leaders are made through hardship, accountability, responsibility, and most importantly integrity driven characteristics that are consistently held to the standards of those above you and in keeping within the ethical requirements of the company or organization that you are apart of.