{"id":10311,"date":"2016-11-15T23:25:09","date_gmt":"2016-11-16T07:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/?p=10311"},"modified":"2016-11-15T23:25:09","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T07:25:09","slug":"leaders-born-or-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/leaders-born-or-made\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaders: Born or Made?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"leader\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Whether or not leaders are born or made is the age-old question.\u00a0 According to research, it appears that although there are some natural abilities that go with making a good leader, like charisma and confidence, leaders are made.\u00a0 They are developed in a variety of ways, through: their personal development, maturity to adulthood, assistance from mentors and coaches, and self-reflection.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow much do leaders matter?\u201d, was another interesting question posed by leadership researchers.\u00a0 Through their findings, they were able to measure the impact they had on an organization.\u00a0 Research findings indicate that leaders vary on the importance they play on the industry.\u00a0 Some leaders have a more significant impact on organizations than others, but regardless of how effective their role is, the better question to ask is where do they matter?\u00a0 Determining where the leader impacts the organization the most gives an indication to the significance of the leader.<\/p>\n

Another question to explore in leadership is \u201cWhy is there a significant gender gap in leadership?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cOnly 2% of the Fortune 500 CEOs and only 8% of top leadership positions are held by women\u201d (Kindle, 4684-87). The gap widens for minority women.\u00a0 The significant gender gap in leadership is seen in politics and corporate leadership positions, and this gap is mirrored in organizational leadership around the world.\u00a0 When women comprise half or more of the world\u2019s population, it is important to explore the barriers which are: the gender expectations and stereotypes that influence the leaders and the followers, and assertive behavior is admired in men and criticized in women for being unattractive or bossy.\u00a0 When women are successful, they are less liked then their male counterparts, but when they are nice they are not respected (Kindle, 4701-3).\u00a0 This is a double-bind we are placing our women leaders in, therefore, they have to decide to be liked or be competent, verses being able to be both.<\/p>\n

What makes leadership positions so challenging for women to secure?\u00a0 Research indicates that organizations undermine their women leaders as being ill-suited for the leadership position, thus providing a gender bias in their company\u2019s culture. \u00a0Other barriers include: breaking into the good-ol\u2019 boys club, excessive hours at the office away from family, limited time for socialization, them doing the majority of housework and childcare as well as their job, lack of supportive spouses, lack of flexibility, and avoiding flex time for fear of jeopardizing their position.\u00a0 To perpetuate the issue, there is a lack of female role models in leadership to inspire younger women.\u00a0 Sadly, research reveals women are held to higher work standards but their work competency is rated lower, and their pay is less. In summary, \u201cwomen leaders clearly navigate a different societal and organizational terrain than their male counterparts, a terrain deeply rooted in cultural ambivalence.\u201d (Kindle, 4708-10).re<\/p>\n

I am left with a few questions of my own about leadership:\u00a0 What constitutes a healthy leader? How do we create a culture for both genders to lead together?\u00a0 I think it is fair to say, if leaders are made, they are just as much \u201cunmade\u201d or undeveloped if we lack the development needed to make healthy, successful leaders, giving equal opportunity to all genders and minorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether or not leaders are born or made is the age-old question.\u00a0 According to research, it appears that although there are some natural abilities that go with making a good leader, like charisma and confidence, leaders are made.\u00a0 They are developed in a variety of ways, through: their personal development, maturity to adulthood, assistance from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[414,195],"class_list":["post-10311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-khurana","tag-nohria","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}