Leaders and the Nature-Nurture Debate: Great Person Versus Great Opportunity
There are two theories about where effective leaders come from. The Great Person theory asserts that leaders are born, not made; whereas the Great Opportunity theory claims that leadership can be learned as a skill. Strict proponents of the Great Person theory claim that people are either born leaders or born followers: They either have it or they don't. If they do have it, they dictate, command, and control. If they don't have it, they follow those who do have it. “The cowboy riding the range is the stereotypical American, and that has carried over into business” (Hequet, 1994, p. 7). This Great Person theory of leadership is unidirectional—from the top down, with leaders ...
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