Leaders are born, not made. Or so I always thought since growing as a kid. All the time you would see those that are more charismatic, masculine, or even just brave naturally take on leadership roles. But as time moves on, beyond that of primary and secondary school, and you begin to see a shift. I can’t speak for my parents or my grandparents, but I believe the shift of opinion from the old to young will be drastically different, as the world around us has exponentially increased in knowledge and value.
Just like the advancement of science, the advancement of leadership studies has changed throughout the years. If I were to guess, public opinion (and thus the opinion of my grandparents and parents) was probably matching with that of the leadership theories of the time. Early on in the 1930’s and 1940’s most leadership studies were based off of the trait approach, where leaders were assumed to be born based on personal personality, motives, values, and skills. It was said, “early leadership theories attributed managerial success to extraordinary abilities such as tireless energy, penetrating intuition, uncanny foresight, and irresistible persuasive powers.“ (Yukl, 2013) But when those studies began to fail, other approaches such as the behavior approach in the 1950’s and others began to take shape. Now with the creation of the MSLD program at ERAU, the whole study of leadership seems so vast, complex, and growing that by the time we graduate everything we learned at the beginning may no longer be relevant!
I believe this change in opinion has occurred because of the growth of knowledge that everyone as a collective whole as consumed. Obolensky brings up the idea that “the increase of knowledge in the world is matched by an increase of uncertainty. Knowing more does not necessarily help increase certainty.” (Obolensky, 2010) As things become more and more complex and rapidly changing, organizational leaders need to be able to adapt quickly or get buried alive. Yukl brings up the idea of participative leadership that “involves efforts by a leader to enlist the aid of others in making important decisions. Democratic societies uphold the right of people to influence decisions that will affect them in important ways. Involving others in making decisions is often a necessary part of the political process for getting decisions approved and implemented in organizations.” (Yukl, 2013) But its not just about decision acceptance, it’s also about speed. A leader cannot lead in a complex and fast changing environment unless they empower those on the front lines to make the decisions themselves. I’d be really curious to see how ideas change in the coming years.
References
Obolensky, N. (2010). Complex Adaptive Leadership. London, UK: Gower/Ashgate.
Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in Organizations. New Jersey: Pearson.
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