Leadership nature vs nurture essay

Shelley Kirkpatrick and colleagues have identified several key leadership traits (1991). These traits include: drive, leadership motivation, honesty and integrity, self-confidence, cognitive ability, and knowledge. Genetic and psychological studies have found that individual personality traits are deteriorated to highly heritable (Johnson et al. 1998).

Further research suggests that extroversion, another personality trait, is consistently associated with obtaining leadership positions and leader effectiveness (Rigor, 2009). Thus, it stands that there may be reliable personality trait differences between leaders and non-leaders, and these traits are heritable. However, other research suggests that leadership is about one-third born and two-thirds made (Rigor, 2009).

Psychology shows that nurture plays a huge role in how one develops and the person we eventually become. As such, I m of the belief that leadership capability falls along a bell curve. Some people are indeed born with characteristics that predispose them to being great leaders and reside at the top of the curve.