Born or Made Essay

In other words, I’m hitting two birds with one stone: watching the movie and relating it with my reaction paper on leaders being born or made. I’m talking about Captain America and Iron Man. What about them? Captain America was a hero in the past. He joined the military. Because of his diminutive size, he wasn’t given much attention in the army. In other words, he was a nobody until he was asked to be part of the experiment. From a small soldier to a buffy one, he has become a man of power and strength. He has become Captain America! On the other hand, Tony Sparks, commonly known as Iron Man, was a genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist. Because of his intelligence, he was able to make inventions that helped mankind and eventually made him Iron Man. Both have the same goal: to help and save mankind. Now, how is this related to the main topic of this paper? As I was observing the two heroes, my personal opinion would be: Captain America has innate abilities of being a leader while Iron Man has acquired the abilities, so to speak. So, are leaders born or made? II. Synopsis In the article written by Bottger (2010), he mentioned that the question â€Å"Are leaders born or made? † may not even be relevant. He claimed that it is a question that has obsessed many leadership scholars over the years and is often posed by executives in development programs. According to him, it’s â€Å"a bad question which begets bad answers†. â€Å"As many decades of leadership writing shows, this is a question that cannot yield a satisfactory response, especially for aspiring leaders. Understandably, the line taken by management educators tends to be that most leadership qualities can be developed, given adequate amounts of key personal characteristics, notably intelligence and physical energy. But the fact is that you do not know what you are born with until you try very hard to express it. Actually, the question illuminates little, as it fails to deal with a basic point, namely the degree of responsibility sought. What level of leadership responsibility does the person aspire to? The highest levels of leadership responsibilities present tasks that are massive, complex and conflictual. The playing field, the boundaries and the rules become less certain. Indeed, it is the leader’s job to shape these choices. † Bottger proposes three questions to assess one’s leadership potential: How far do you want to go? What are you willing to invest? How will you keep it up? III. Reaction/Insights Throughout history, we have learned many great people and great leaders. Napoleon Bonaparte, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , our very own Dr. Jose P. Rizal to name a few. They indeed proved their worth, thus making them part of the great men in history. But, how about now? How about me? Humbly speaking, I would say I’m not born to lead, but I’m sure made to lead and serve. If I were to trace my leadership roadmap, I would gather my playmates and acted like I was their teacher. In grade school, I was an active member of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines, I even became a Patrol Leader. In high school, I was a class officer. When I reached college, I became a class mayor. Now that I’m teaching, I have been a co-moderator of our school’s Student Council. Working with young leaders is indeed a challenging yet rewarding experience for me. I have learned so much from my council leaders. Young as they are, they have a lot to share. I can see the spirit of service in them strong. Eventually, they will become our nation’s future leaders. If I am made to lead, so are they. It is a humbling experience to be working with these young leaders because I get to realize my strengths and limitations. The leadership trainings and workshops I was exposed to eventually helped me become effective in my assignments. There is no doubt that with proper training and exposure, a person who is willing to learn and even learn from his mistakes, will become a good leader. Indeed, everything can be learned, but the leader-wanna-be should be willing to learn. But how come others seem to learn faster than the rest even if they are all willing to learn? One important factor would be intelligence. We have different IQ’s. Some learn faster, some need more time to grasp what is being taught to them. Another factor would be the environment they were or are exposed with. A person may be early on exposed to dealing with other people, say, employees of his parents in their family business. His parents may have already exposed him at a young age on how to deal with their staff and the different responsibilities involved in their business. Another person may have been exposed to a leadership in a basketball team. Being a varsity member and the team captain, he exercised responsibilities of a leader. I believe that openness to growth is very important especially to aspiring leaders. As an aspiring leader, how far do I want to go? Honestly, I love being in the academe. For as long as my superiors put their trust in me, I would love to stay for a higher position in the academe. What am I willing to invest? Pursuing my graduate studies is one step I am taking. I understand there’s still so much I have to learn. How will I keep it up? I need to be more open to criticisms, resistance and setbacks. It’s tough, I know. But I believe I can make it. Knowing that the Greatest Leader is there to guide me, I will really be able to do things right. I believe I am made to lead and serve for God’s greater glory. IV. Conclusion Are leaders born or made? I would rather say leaders are made. I believe that if a person already has innate leadership abilities, but isn’t open to growth, he or she will never become an effective leader. However, if someone has shown such leadership potential and shows willingness to be trained and is really open to learning more, he or she will become an effective one. Furthermore, the important question is: what are you willing to do – or to sacrifice – to become the best leader you can be? V. Source Bottger, P. C. & Barsoux, J. (2010, March). Are leaders born or made? Retrieved April 25, 2012, from http://www. imd. ch