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ESSAY QUESTION:
"Since key personal traits that make a good leader are formed during one’s childhood and youth, formal training can only refine rather than cultivate true leaders.”

Explain what you think this quotation means and discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with it. Develop your position with reasons and/or specific examples drawn from history, current events, or your own experience, observations, or reading.

MY Response :

"Leaders are born, not made" This quote sums up the position described in the issue. I agree with the author that leadership cannot be cultivated in general. It is an invaluable trait which is found in very few people.

Before I substantiate my point, we need to understand the difference between a true leader and a person who merely leads a group of people because of his position in an organisation or society. Because the latter might not be a true leader in the real sense of the word. I would like to give an example to prove my point. During the time when India was ruled by the Maharajas and royal families, there were very few leaders like Akbar or Chandragupta Maurya who truly ruled the hearts of the people whom they ruled. There were many instances of kings becoming rulers, merely by inheritance or lineage. Those kings did not necessarily have the skills to lead and hence were failures when it came to gaining respect and adulation from people.

Leaders show important traits such as discipline, focus,passion for change, caring for the general good of people around them without selfish interests etc. Majority of these traits in good leaders have been found either from birth or have developed in them during their formative years. Majority of the leaders we know, have been known to show these traits early on. Gandhi, in his book "My experiments with truth" clearly mentions about the importance of his formative years because of which he started believing in non violence. He shares important experiences from his childhood and youth and traces the roots of his philosophy from there.

Formal training can to a certain extent polish these skills of focus, management of people and resources etc. But they cannot be entirely developed from scratch. If a person does not have these inherent traits, no amount of education or training can make him a true leader. Leadership has to come from within. Hence we see so many educated people who are good in what they do, but do not become leaders ever in their life.

To conclude, I would like to say that every person should try to develop key personal traits during their formative years in order to provide a solid foundation to become a leader in the true sense of the word.