{"id":49476,"date":"2024-09-17T19:03:03","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T23:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/?post_type=articles&p=49476"},"modified":"2025-05-08T06:56:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T10:56:30","slug":"are-leaders-born-or-made-perspectives-from-the-executive-suite","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/are-leaders-born-or-made-perspectives-from-the-executive-suite\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Leaders Born or Made?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why Expectations Impact Leadership Development<\/h2>\n

Do you think a leader should be a hero, out in front leading people? Or behind the scenes, coordinating the team\u2019s work? Are some people destined to become leaders, or can leadership skills be developed? Are leaders born or made?<\/p>\n

The way we think about leadership affects how we perceive the leaders around us. If we expect a leader to be a hero, we\u2019re likely to see someone who takes charge to save the day as having the\u00a0characteristics of a good leader<\/a>. With that same expectation, someone who seeks everyone\u2019s opinion and lets the team shape decisions may be seen as weak.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, if we think a leader should be collaborative and focused on making sure decisions arise from the team, we would view someone who\u2019s directive as aggressive or a tyrant.<\/p>\n

In the same way, our beliefs about how people become<\/em> leaders affect how we evaluate people\u2019s leadership potential.<\/p>\n

Believing leaders are born, not made, is likely to result in a focus more on selection (identifying the \u201cright\u201d people) rather than on development (developing the people you have). On the other hand, believing that people are made into leaders by their experiences would be more likely to result in a greater focus on making sure people had the right opportunities to develop into leaders.<\/p>\n

This leads us back to the central question: Are leaders born or made?<\/p>\n

At CCL, we believe everyone is born with the potential to be a leader \u2014 and that potential must be developed beyond skills. Developing the whole person \u2014 building capacity and instilling new mindsets through vertical development<\/a> \u2014 is needed to expand potential.<\/p>\n

The implication is that leaders are made because leadership can be practiced and learned.<\/strong> That\u2019s the underlying belief that led our researchers to first document that experience is the best teacher for leaders. They introduced the 70-20-10 rule<\/a>, outlining the 3 types of experiences that leaders learn and grow from, following a ratio of:<\/p>\n