Consider this clip from Brendan Bain, a doctor and professor at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, as he addresses this question.
Dr. Bain suggests that leadership is not something that we are born with, but that for some people leadership opportunities emerge depending upon the environment or situation we are born into. He asserts that leadership can be learned and exists at any level of an organization, a belief that the Everyday Leadership highlights throughout the videos and training resources.
Professor Bain
The concept that leadership can be learned, and that leaders are not born as such, is relatively new. It differs from past theories like the “Great Man Theory,” which emphasizes that leaders were pre-destined, usually coming from the elite class, and were born to lead. Dr. Bain discusses observing leadership characteristics in all different kinds of people instead of your typical “leaders,” and suggests that “sometimes we just don’t call it leadership.”
One scholar, Mitch McCrimmon, PhD, and author of Burn! Leadership Myths in Flames, echoes Dr. Bain’s assertion. He writes, “[l]eaders aren’t born. Neither are great artists, but both are born with potential.”
Developing that potential takes time, dedication, and patience. Victor Lakay, an activist in South Africa, reflects on a time when he was aware that he had grown as a leader. In this example, Mr. Lakay’s leadership role required patience, as well as the ability to listen, in order to offer compromise.
The curricula portion of the Everyday Leadership site offers tools and resources that can be used alongside video clips to teach leadership or guide personal reflection. Searching by the theme “learning leadership,” for example, will bring up videos and training curricula related to this topic. Exploring the materials portion of the site, using the principle Dr. Bain refers to as, “leading from any position,” brings up other video options for use, as well as helpful curricula.. Please peruse more videos and visit the curricula side of the Everyday Leadership site to develop your own leadership potential today.
