Genes have a little role to play in making future leaders and leadership development follows a specific progression via life experiences, says an interesting study.
To prove their point, professors Kari Keating, David Rosch and Lisa Burgoon from University of Illinois analysed a group of students.
“In only 15 weeks in our introductory class, students reported significant gains in three important components of leadership - self-efficacy, skills and motivation to lead, ” said Keating.
Past research suggests that leadership is 30 percent genetic and 70 percent a result of lessons learned through life experiences.
The findings shows that science is involved in teaching leadership development.
“It is a three-legged stool: we call it being ready, willing and able. Students first become ready to learn about being a leader; then they become willing to learn the skills necessary to practice leadership; and finally they are able to lead because they have the skills and the motivation to do it, ” explained Rosch.
You cannot really move on to the other legs of the stool until you have achieved a certain amount of this readiness, he noted.
So what is leadership? “Historically, leaders have been viewed as being male and power-oriented. It used to be if you were tall, articulate and well-schooled, you were a leader in other people's minds, ” Burgoon pointed out.
But leadership is more than that.
“The definition we use in the course is that leadership is an individual influencing a group of people toward a common goal, ” Burgoon said.
So how do you influence people?
“You can lead through your interactions, your relationships, your communication, the way you express thanks and your ethics, ” he concluded.