Are leaders born or made ....

It was in the April of 2011 that I had cleared 2 rounds of my campus hiring season and was anxiously waiting for my group discussion topic to be announced. The selector starred at me as he asked me to speak on the topic ‘Are leaders born or made’. Without wasting time, I said ‘while leadership qualities can be inculcated by an external route, some people are born with’.

The selector smiled at my naivety and asked me to elaborate more on it so that he could evaluate me on my speaking and thinking skills. This time I introspected a little, and after thinking for a few seconds, I said ‘ while schools, parents, colleges try to teach us the importance of responsibility, accountability, self-reflection and conscientious speaking, hardly anyone takes these skills seriously and laugh out loud at them. For these skills can only be enforced or expected (I was clearly speaking from my experience :)) but cannot be embedded into our being. Until the moment something of high importance to us is at stake that our true selves get revealed. The way we act in that moment reveals whether a leader is born or made. ‘

The selector now was blank faced and looked even more puzzled. And I was convinced I have lost the chance of getting selected to the very first company that has visited our campus for the placement season. Thinking to myself that even though I have lost the chance to get selected, I might as well conclude what I started, I went on to include some examples from everyday life. I elaborated that ‘while B-schools train students to act, speak, think and behave a certain way, only few students stand the test of time. Some great leaders like Ratan Tata/Homi Bhabha/Steve Jobs /APJ Abdul Kalam/ Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel turned out to be great leaders and excelled in their craft. It wasn’t because they did or did not take formal education but because they deeply cared about SOMETHING; the very thing they ended up excelling in.

When you deeply care about something outside of your mere being, you strive to achieve perfection in it and that becomes your leadership trademark! And they say

A LEADER is BORN’

I am not sure, if I ended up making sense to the selector, but I got selected . Pretty much the only thing I wanted in the summer of 2011!!