Are Leaders Born or Made?

(Neutral Position)

RIA SOOKNARINE
“Leadership is the process of
influencing people by providing
purpose, direction, and motivation to
accomplish the mission and improve
the organization.”

(Field Manual 6-22, 2013)

LEADERS ARE BORN
• Personality traits associated with leadership (openness, extroversion)
– can’t be learned
• Everyone is born with a certain potential (natural born leader/
charismatic)
LEADERS ARE MADE
LEADERSHIP
LEADERSHIP TRAITS
HISTORY
NAME DETAILS
Martin Luther King Jr. Led civil rights movement through nonviolent activism. At age
1929– 1968 28, he served as leader/spokesperson – until he was
(39 years) assassinated at age 39.

Mahatma Gandhi Lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, political ethicist who led

1869 – 1948 nonviolent campaigns for India’s independence from British
(78 years) rule. At age 23, he became a civil rights activist in South
Africa, until 1915 (age 46) where he began his struggle for
Indian independence

Mother Teresa of Calcutta Care for "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled,
1910 – 1997 the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted,
(87 years) unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have
become a burden to the society and are shunned by
everyone“
LEADERS ARE MADE – NOT
BORN