Bosses and Leaders

While writing the last post, it crossed my mind; what makes a good leader? Are they born with good leadership trait? Or was it developed along the way?

I always believe that what ever we do, we can do it well if it comes from the heart. With sincerity comes the passion. And passion can ignite and influence the behavior of the people to form a dynamic team. Question is; Can sincerity be developed?

Take a Harvard scholar who has good business acumen and is able to develop sound business strategy that has the potential to bring the company to a new level. Is that enough to make him be a good leader?

Maybe we can start with what is the definition of a good leader or leadership. Simply put a leader is a person who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a goal. Let me google a few more....

Business Dictionary
A person that holds a dominant or superior position within his fields and is able to exercise a high degree of control or influence over others.

Susan Ward, Business Writer About.com
Leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal. Effective leadership is based upon ideas but wont happen unless those ideas can be communicated to others in a way that engages them.

There are more detail definition of Leaders and Leadership but I will stop just there but do look up the definition by BrainyQuote, its really funny!


According to an author and motivator Rajeev Peshawaria, there are too many Bosses, too few Leaders. That is in fact the title of his book. The book tells you how to be a good leader. Interestingly, he said in his book that  "one of the biggest reasons for the abundance of poor or mediocre leaders is that people accept leadership position for the wrong reasons. They either do so for personal fame, fortune or glory or are picked to fill the position of leadership based on technical expertise alone. Leadership is not about personal fame and fortune alone. There is nothing wrong with working for self interest, most of us do, but leadership needs a purpose bigger than  self-interest. Personal fame and fortune should be a by-product of Leadership"

The old saying of "Lead Yourself to lead Others" is so true. But it still doesn't answer my question: Are great leaders born or can they be developed?