Are Leaders Born or Made, Event at the Dana Centre

This event focused on the psychology of leadership. Are great leaders made by their charisma and ability or by the people who follow in their wake? Are there innate qualities in a leader that can't be learned?

An archived webcast of this event is available.

Speakers:

Adrian Furnham, Professor of Psychology at University College London. Adrian focused on the fact that we are now understanding the personality traits and cognitive ability profile of leaders.
Alex Haslam, Professor of Social and Organisational Psychology at the University of Exeter. Alex said that leadership is not an individual process, but rather a group process grounded in the creation and management of a sense of shared social identity. Moreover, without social identity, there can be no leadership, as there can be no followership.
Paul Brewerton, Blue Edge Consulting. Paul's main focus at this event was that many of the cores skills of leadership can be developed and learned, meaning that leaders can be made.

Of the audience of 71, 48 indicated that their opinions had been challenged by this event, and a large number had changed their opinion entirely by the end of the evening. The figures reflect partly how persuasive the panel of speakers was, with opinion split between two views and the two strongest speakers - great leaders have innate qualities and great leaders are made by the group they lead.