Leadership development is a multifaceted constantly evolving process. The complexity of the different aspects and sheer number of different aspects that go into the development of a leader is a highly studied topic.
The first aspect studied intensively is the question of whether someone is born a leader? It is in DNA and genetics to determine leadership ability. There is a wide range of percentages in which some researchers found genetics to play a role, but most agree to some degree genetics does play a role. According to Murphy and Johnson’s analysis of the data published “the studies suggest that anywhere form 30-59% of the personality characteristics predictive of leadership can be attributed to genetic factors”. One family of example that would seem to represent leadership in genetic based is the Kennedy’s. For the past 71 years since 1947, a Kennedy family member has held a federal elective office seat at varying levels.
Personally, I believe genetics may make someone more predisposed to better characteristics which a leader should own and represent, but genetics itself does not determine who is a leader. There are also numerous individual aspects researchers have studied that add into the ability to develop into an effective leader such as birth order, parenting style in which one was raised and even the aspect of whether or not team sports were participated in as a child.1 While these individual aspects may play some role in leadership development the true significance is unknown. Although genetics may give one a head start on building the foundation of leadership it is certainly not the whole story.
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As a leader emerges and develops, the initial step is for them to evaluate themselves. A self SWOT analysis of ones strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats must be truly completed to be able to develop into an effective leader. Doing this analysis of ones self, helps to determine the readiness of the individual for leadership development. Avolio and Hannah discuss the importance of evaluating this readiness for leadership development before one tries to grow and develop. 3 They identified six separate points to evaluate this readiness.
The development of a leader is very much individualized to the person themselves. This is because everyone has different past life experiences which shape and mold their ideas and thoughts and drive their future leadership. Manuel London explores the importance of the ability to recognize the influences these experiences have as well as discussing the three needed psychological factors one needs to possess in order to develop into a successful leader which are self-insight, self-regulation and
self-identity. 4 These past experiences and understanding them is critical in self-insight. Feedback from others about how one is perceived is another important aspect of self-insight. A leader not only needs to get feedback but truly needs to listen to the feedback to improve upon themselves in order to grow. This helps to mold the self-identity. Self-identity is to lead by example. A set of ethical and moral standards needs to be initiated and followed by an effective leader.
Just because a leader has self-awareness does not mean they are an effective leader. Concentrating on ones weaknesses can lead to a self-destructive role. With self-awareness needs to come self-confidence. Murphy et al. details this important idea. In order be a successful leader, one must view themselves as a successful leader and envision themselves leading. Another self-idea which Murphy et al. discusses is self-management. With self-management an effective leader can foster and develop good habits while filtering out the bad or ineffective habits.
Ineffective or bad habits will also send the leader into a self-destructive spiral requiring more time and effort without producing the results the leader had expected, thus requiring more time and the cycle will continue. With self-management should also come goal setting. Goal setting is a method for leaders to achieve growth and results that can be measured as successful. They are many important aspects to goal setting which Murphy et al. discusses in detail. Realistic goals, appropriate time frames and the ability to measure the goal/outcome are just a few of the components of effective goal setting.
There is not a simple or generic path to follow in order for one to develop into an effective leader. Each leader is developed from their individual traits, values, experiences and willingness to evaluate themselves. A truly successful leader will not always succeed or reach their goal but will always learn and grow, sometimes growing and having failures be a more valuable experience than successes.
