Over time many questions have been acknowledged based on how an individual is deemed as a leader. Are these qualities be taught or are they inherited? There has been a lot of research done that would argue both sides. However, through research, it is evident that leadership isn’t something that is necessarily taught but something that is learned. 

In Chairman Professor James PS’s article, “Leadership: Are People Born With the Skill or Can it be Acquired,” he draws out three main points of fundamental roles of leadership: “direction setting, creating alignment, and creating engagement with people.” These are three points that will be used to help conduct a strong argument throughout the following part of the essay. PS also recognizes the article, “Born to Lead: A twin design and genetic association study of leadership,” which refers to a gene that is responsible for 24% of a person’s leadership qualities. Thus meaning that there is still 76% of a person’s leadership quality that comes from non-inherited ability. The other points that will be discussed come from the article “Can Leadership Be Taught,” by Gregory LeStage and his concept of leadership being learned from the following: on-the-job experience, informal learning, and formal learning.

Direction setting is the ability to properly form a vision. This vision is developed through strict core values, a central purpose, a specific goal in store, and a thorough description. Before this takes place, however, the person must have figured out their own morals and core values. These values must be approved by accredited and well-trusted mentors of the person before they are applied. Without using valid sources/mentors, people are left wandering and being misled. Creating alignment is constructed through one’s ability to maintain performance management and change management. This is one’s ability to maintain high levels of performance during times of change, whether it’s environmental changes, leadership changes, social changes, economical changes, etc. This is critical in terms of leadership because these are things that change many different times throughout a short span of time and to be able to keep a high level of performance and not transform to low levels is key. Being able to create engagement with people is another key component to leadership. This involves being able to motivate others, support people in times of hardship, conduct collaboration, and promote diversity. This aspect of leadership is necessary to have because leaders are the people who are there for others, to mentor to them, and lift them up. Although these are things leaders do, they are all things that are learned and developed, and when a person learns these traits, there is always still room for growth. That is why it is claimed that leadership is learned more than it is taught because even when a person believes they have mastered these fundamental roles of leadership, there is still more to be developed, always. 

To build off the idea of leadership being learned over it being taught, the three phases of learning leadership are applied: on-the-job experience, informal learning, and formal learning. LeStage makes the breakdown of on-the-job experiences being 70% of the learning in leadership, informal learning being 20% of it, and formal learning being 10%. On-the-job experience (70%) comes from doing real work, in a real-world situation, during real time. There is no better way to learn how to do something than doing it and getting feedback and criticism within the situation. Doing things in real-world situations allows people to become truly motivated and engage a heartfelt connection to it. Opportunities like this have people very engaged and they learn so much easier and faster by being put into roles of leadership versus sitting in a classroom and reading about it from a book. Leadership has many different definitions but is commonly seen as an engagement of people and without allowing people to engage in real-world situations with real people, they will never learn how to truly interact when it comes to working with these types of conditions. Informal learning (20%) is an important factor of learning leadership. This goes with learning along the way, on-the-job, and just being pulled aside before, during, or after an event by a peer or mentor and being given simple advice. Learning on the go is quick and simple and is very useful and helps motivate leaders. The final 10% comes from formal learning. This is perceived to be more in the classroom setting, face-to-face type learning. This time is spent as time to truly focus, interact with other aspiring leaders, and reflect. This aspect is much like this course, when calculated out to the number of hours a person is awake in a day and the number of hours the LAS students spend in a setting like this is about 3% of our time. Although it is the lowest amount of time people spend on of the three phases, it is still very important. It is crucial to spend time, as a leader, in a serious and focused environment discussing and challenging yourself as well as others.

Everything I have discussed up to this point concludes that leadership is something that is learned and continuously developed. There is no limit on a person’s ability to grow as a leader and nor is there is a certain type of person that is deemed as a leader from birth. A person who is willing to find strong core values, maintain them, abide by them, build others up through them and use the three phases of learning them, is able to be a leader, whether that is leading one person or a large group of people.

Works Cited

International, Kotter. “Can Leadership Be Taught?” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 3 Nov. 2014, 

www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2014/11/03/can-leadership-be-taught/#7b445756602d.

PS, James. “Leadership: Are People Born With the Skill or Can It Be Acquired?” Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur, 7 Dec. 2017, http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/305823.