Leadership This Is a Guideline

Leadership This is a guideline and template. Please do not use as a final turn-in paper. Can Leadership Be Taught? The definition of leadership includes "the ability to guide, direct, or influence people." That sure sounds like something that can be taught. But we'll look a bit deeper into that definition and what leadership really is. My opinion is that a real leader has that innate quality and charisma to endear people to his other leadership qualities such as his knowledge, experience, professionalism, talent, and strength of character.

It is that innate charisma that I do not believe can be taught. A person can "lead" by excellent management skills, and can supervise his subordinates professionally and capably, but would they define him as a leader, or a great manager? Experts attempt to define leadership in many ways. A leader influences people to succeed and accomplish objectives that allow the "team" not just the individual to become more cohesive. Leaders apply certain values that they have established over a period of time along with their own skill set.

Their leadership has a positive impact on those who choose to be impacted by it. It motivates people to desire to excel -- to prove to their leader their own capabilities without him or her asking them to. Leadership after all is an ability -- a talent if you will or a skill -- to inspire in others a vision or a dream (Kurnik, 2009).

Can Leaders and Future Leaders Be Taught Leadership? If the question is can a person who has leadership traits already be taught to be a better leader? The answer would be probably, yes. That is given that the traits we discussed above are present, say, in one who has displayed the potential but needs experience to gather the other skills necessary to lead. Can any manager or supervisor be taught to be a leader? Again the response would be no.

"The idea that leadership can be taught suggests a curriculum and the notion that techniques of leading can be transmitted via frameworks, reading materials, and other instructional aids" (Gunn, 2001). Leaders step forward. That's now leaders become better leaders. That's how a "young" inexperienced" leader becomes a better leader. His or her qualities are formed such that he projects the need and desire to become better. Therefore, it happens.

But the leadership qualities that identified them as requiring more experience or a diversity of challenges to make them a CEO or COB are already present. Is Leadership a "Learned" Set of Skills and Traits.. It may seem that we are answering the same question three times, and, perhaps we are. If we follow the logic of our previous answer, leadership itself is not a learned set of skills or traits. A leader becoming a better manager or executive or administrator involves a learned set of skills or traits.

But he or she has already displayed the traits of leadership -- those inherent personality characteristics, charisma, talents, and the vision that allows others to follow and succeed. "Leadership is important on every level of business," says Paul Ostewski, assistant professor of business at Wheeling Jesuit University (Zito.