Leadership.. Leaders..Are they born or made?

Leadership.. Leaders..Are they born or made?

This is a question which was invented quite a long time ago and has been debated constantly with consistent conflict.

I did come across this debate once again on the Net and was surprised to see a new school of thought saying  “all are born and all are made… so the question is itself wrongly phrased...”

It got me thinking and I give words to my thoughts. Who are these “Leaders” we are constantly debating about? Are they leaders of terrorist groups, of unethical corporates, of small teams of over-burdened employees in BPOs, of misguided nations, of power-hungry political parties, of self-centered religious cults….whom are we talking about?

Assuming logically that it is a generic question which covers the entire panorama of human activities, we will go into the logic which should provide us with a solution to “ are leaders born or made”.

I too believe that they are neither born nor made. Leadership is a bestowed activity. Leaders reflect the society they lead. Their activity is the wish of the society they lead. Each person has the freedom to either be part of that society or move into another society which fits his or her ideology. Of course we should allow a time- creep for the transition of any ideology from bad to good but corrective actions like annihilation, legal action, disciplinary action, invasion, despotism and ostracism, all are to be aimed at the entire society which bestowed power on such leadership.

It is the basic responsibility of every human to be conscious of his or her contribution to society and this responsibility is to be taken seriously. Today, the truly deserving leaders are masked by the total carelessness of the society they live in. They are leaders of mankind who believe in truth and justice, in love and compassion, in the dignity of human labor and in the virtue behind every commercial investment.

It is time to start a mass movement of like-thinking people, which will encompass all levels of society, all countries in total, in an effort to identify right-thinking people who will be able to lead us on. It is not difficult to start it and I know that it will snow-ball rapidly. What we really need to do consciously is to set the checks and balances to prevent a hijack of the operation by vested interests. As we start there will be no ostracism and the momentum will drag the cynics in.

This is now possible with the Internet and today, history is set in motion!