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Is leadership an inborn quality or an acquired one? Numerology says that the people who are born in the number “1”, as a total of their date of birth, are leaders. It sure sounds great and motivates people as they read it to know that they are leaders. But how far is it, pragmatically and factually true? Can leaders be born?

Leaders are not born, neither is it necessarily something that can be taught to someone — it is something, however, that can be learnt. Being a leader depends on how much of an observation you tend to make, gather information and learn from mistakes and others’ mistakes, and constantly take steps towards making sure that no mistake repeated itself. Being a leader is basically about being proactive. It’s about how often are people having to push you to do the work? How often are people having to correct your mistakes or, well, how often are other people thinking for you?

A leader also isn’t someone who necessarily is a driving force of the team, a leader is someone who understands that the team itself is the driving force. It’s like a flock of pigeons flying in group — they have no leader, every pigeon in the formation takes turn to take the lead, to lead the rest of the flock. That is being a “leader” it is when everybody in the team becomes one. Being a leader isn’t just about you. It isn’t just about one person taking the lead. It’s about the whole group of people, trusting each other to take the lead and understanding that everyone will have their own directions to go to a destination.

Is leadership inborn quality or an acquired one? Its a quality that can be learnt, but cannot be taught. And it’s a quality that is larger than an individual.