Are Leaders Born or Made - Free Essay Example

Introduction

We have always heard of the term leadership, but the question is, are leaders born or made? I believe that leadership is not only inherited, but it is also a process that is built through various activities of life. One may become a leader through nature or by virtual of fate. We have seen many becoming leaders because of the significant influence of someone or one becoming a leader due to family lineage or inheritance. We have examples of great men and women in this world who were born from humble backgrounds and grew up to become great leaders through their intelligence, qualities and experience they include; Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi among many. Therefore, this means that anybody can become a leader regardless of their family backgrounds.

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Plans

Imagine a young little African American girl born and brought up in the south region of Mississippi, where Black Americans were treated like nobodies. That little girl was me, in my life I have always wanted to become a Project Manager within the Homeland Security, and have always dreamt about it picturing myself as a superhero in supervising great projects within the Homeland security. Life in Mississippi was not easy; the whites did not accept us the blacks as social and racial equals. There was no independence of our own and many a time we found ourselves segregated and lacked social and basic amenities such as food, shelter and security. As a young girl, I felt not secure since sex to a black American was not unlawful; at the age of eighteen, I got my firstborn son (Howard & Irving, 2012). By the age of twenty-two, I had already had my second born; life was not easy, I was forced to early marriage since my parents were not stable to raise the family together with my children.

My marriage was not rosy, and at one point, we divorced. By this time, I knew that life would be more difficult by I was determined to succeed in my life. At this time, I had more responsibilities, and I had to make wise and credible decisions. I struggled a lot because raising children alone was not a walk in the park, but to me, it felt like climbing a mountain since I had no source of income. I believed that nothing would come on a silver platter, and through my determination, I was able to secure an entry to complete my elementary school, where I passed with flying colors. Even though I had no money, I got a scholarship to study project management in a prestigious college. I had really to work extremely hard to become who I am today. I believed that my destiny was in my hands, and I had to make my dream to come true regardless of my background and the situation that I caught myself in.

Destiny

To me, I was destined for great things, and it was evident that I never choose to be born from a low-income family in Mississippi neither did I choose to be a Black American but I was at liberty to change the direction of my destiny. I passed well in my college exams and secured a job opportunity as an assistant project manager in one of the non-governmental organization; this was indeed a defining moment in my life, and at last, I had experienced some worthiness in me, I hence realized that with hard work, determination, focus, and strong ethics the impossible was possible. I served as an assistant project manager for two years, and after performance evaluation, I was promoted and became the Project Manager within the Homeland Security in Mississippi. This newly achievement was satisfying, gratifying and incredible because I was the first person in our family to have occupied some a high level and prestigious position. I chose to become a role model of my children and the community and wanted to them learn that regardless of the race and social status, people should be treated with equality. I, therefore, believed the challenges and difficulties that I faced were just a stepping stone and molded me and improved by leadership traits, qualities and abilities.

Management Function

Leadership is a crucial management function that can help businesses, individuals or organizations to achieve their objectives. There exist different traits, abilities and qualities and forms of leadership that can be used to define who a leader is. Various studies define a leader as a person who guides others to take actions, and leadership is defined as a process in which one person can influence others to achieve the set goals and objectives. In many occasions, effective and dynamic leaderships leads to a significant success in a given organization. For one to be a successful leader one should first understand his or her strengths and weaknesses, and also one should be aware of the personal leadership styles. According to my leadership style, have both participatory and transformational forms of leadership (Mahdinezhad & Suandi, 2013).

Participatory is a leadership approach in which the top leadership involves employees in making decisions; it involves the act of devolving responsibilities from the leader to employees or from the seniors to the juniors while transformational leadership style is a form of leadership in which the leader is mainly concerned in bringing effectiveness to transform the operations of the business, the styles also provides the employees with an opportunity to grow their talents and skills. I 100 per cent agree with the assessment of my leadership styles since I fully involve my team members in the process of making a decision and also encourage them to use their talents and skills to improve the functionalities of the organization in the workplaces.

Beliefs

I am a believer in quality production; thus, I empower my team members by encouraging them to use their skills and also giving them time to work on different projects. Although participatory and transformational leadership styles are important in the management of an organization, it is important to note that the decision-making process may be delayed since many people are involved when using the democratic form of leadership. To many, it may look as if the delay may is a hindrance towards proper management of the company. Still, may I see it as a strength since it provides the employees with an opportunity to provide an informed decision that can help the organization in future.Effective leaders ought to understand the benefits of strong and elaborate communication skills; this means that leadership and communication go hand in hand. Thus it is important to note that communication strengthens competencies and leadership skills (Odine, 2015). Thus a leader who does not have effective and communication skills find it difficult to communicate well with her employees; this hence leads to failed objectives and goals. My communication skills' assessment shows that I do not have good communication skills, and I need to work hard towards improving my communication skills. I have a problem in diverse areas that include conveying information to my team members, and also I do not understand most of my team members because we come from different regions. I try to avoid as much as possible emotions when communicating with my team members. Therefore I work extra harder to provide the required background information and explain views and factual in a manner that each member of the team can easily understand.

In most cases, under tight schedules, I send information without necessarily looking into the available errors, and in case of any correction, I find it difficult to admit. Based on my communication assessment skills, I have got excellent analytical and amiable communication skills, and I find it easy when preparing to do meetings (Nanjundeswaraswamy, 2014). For years now I have tried to work on talking slowly and straight to the point because my background had a significant impact on my communication and due that many people missed on important points that I thought they understood. I have gained more confidence when making public presentations, and I am certainly feeling bolder than before; this has therefore helped me to build trust and a strong relationship with my audience and team members. It is important to note that I am vividly aware of my communication style, and therefore I let my colleagues do most of the talking since I am not a good communicator as such. I may not be a good communicator, but I am a good a listener, and therefore I am excellent in solving arising conflicts. As discussed in this context, I demonstrate high emotional intelligence, and I believe that this enhances my communication and leadership styles.

Based on my Emotional intelligence assessment I exhibit excellent emotional intelligence skills that are why in many instances I am always keen in controlling emotions when speaking and this helps me to convey clear information to my audience even though there are certain areas that I need to improve and work on. Throughout my leadership experience there few things that I have learnt in regards to emotions that have helped me to control unwanted reactions that may bring conflicts between my team members and me. I have been, on many occasions, been able to control my emotions in some of my most stressful moments. I believe that controlling emotions is vital in improving leadership and communications styles. Working as a project manager within Homeland Security has taught me a lot. I have learnt how to treat people equally and improved my conflict solving skills. A good leader should be ready for dialogue; it is an efficient tool that can be used to solve problems among individuals. I have learnt that a lot can be solved through dialogue because it gives everyone a chance to communicate their problems.

Conclusion

In summary, in my opinion, it is, therefore, true to say that leaders can naturally be born or self-made through, education, experience, and personality understanding of one's weakness and strengths. In my case, I was a confident leader who believed in oneself. Therefore I believe that throughout my career for the next 20 years, I will make out to become an outstanding project manager. Based on my leadership and assessment skills, I believe that I have what it takes to be a leader. It is important to note that through good emotional intelligence skills, good conflict resolution skills, excellent application of democratic and transformational leadership styles, it is clear that I value other people’s opinions, beliefs and differences which are essential to my leadership and profession. Based on the discussion, it also important to note that there different traits, qualities, values and abilities that make up a good leader. Leaders should, therefore, be good role models that can be significantly be emulated by others in society.

References

Busch, N. E., & Givens, A. D. (2012). Public-Private Partnerships in Homeland Security: Opportunities and Challenges. Homeland Security Affairs, 8(1).
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/36718157.pdf.

Howard, C. S., & Irving, J. A. (2012). The role of obstacles in leadership formation. ASBBS Proceedings, 19(1), 433. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.471.3080&rep=rep1&type=pdf.

Mahdinezhad, M., & Suandi, B. (2013). Transformational, Transactional Leadership Styles and Job Performance of Academic Leaders. International Education Studies, 6(11), 29-34.
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1068712.

Nanjundeswaraswamy, T. S., & Swamy, D. R. (2014). Leadership styles. Advances in management, 7(2), 57. https://www.academia.edu/download/51993044/leadership_styles.pdf.

Odine, M. (2015). Communication problems in management. Journal of Emerging Issues in Economics, Finance, and Banking (JEIEFB), 4(2).

Watson, J., & Stepteau-Watson, D. (2015). Troubled waters: The Black church in Mississippi, a single subject case study.