What Makes A Leader

Why and how anyone becomes a leader is an interesting question I challenge myself with. You would think that my study and years of work with leaders would be sufficient to give me a clear answer, but in truth, I can only speculate. So, I leap into the unknown because I cannot know for sure. 

I believe leaders are made not by blood or inheritance but by the environment they are born into. Therefore, it must be their parents, as leaders, who lead them in their immediate world and set what is to follow in motion, whether or not they are aware of their role. I suggest the child Is made a leader or follower by how their parents related to them. 

If the child’s voice is nurtured to be as much itself as possible, the child knows “self” and “being.” It freely expresses its wants and needs and does not fear to be what they feel and think.  This baby is learning that they are unique as an individual and self. As they age, this history grows with them, and they both want and need to continue being themselves. And what is a person that must be themselves, unafraid to call their own shots, and to be what is inside them to be? They are a leader! Now it becomes a question of what kind of leader they are or will become.

And, what of the baby that is raised to be what their parents want them to be, perhaps in the image of themselves that they are not? They become followers, as are most people. So, a natural leader is a rare bird and primarily the making of their parents. Whom you are born to is the roll of the dice, the way the cards are dealt. No human has control of their childhood. 

 My child is a self—I nurture this self to be—Not me, but themselves

Sy

Author: Sy Ogulnick

Sy Ogulnick received a BA from UCLA, Teacher’s Credential from Los Angeles Board of Education and completed phase I (Master’s portion) in a Doctor of Behavioral Science program at California Coast University. Sy leased and operated a summer day camp in LA. He and his wife then purchased virgin wilderness land in Northern CA, where they built and operated a coed summer camp. They moved to Las Vegas, NV, and purchased, built and operated a community children’s program for families staying in a major resort casino in Las Vegas. They have created programs for children nationwide that employed many people and in the process developed successful training programs for personnel. This led Sy to lecture on how to train staff and the creating of community within the workplace. Sy was then invited to speak at professional conferences on how best to hire and train employees, which led to his becoming a consultant in the art of improving relationships in a work environment and eventually to his epiphany that “Leaders are the primary problem and the answer to the personnel issues that arise in the workplace.” Sy has written numerous papers on the subject of interpersonal relationships, leadership and power. He has lectured throughout the United States, has been interviewed by the media and has appeared on many radio and TV talk shows

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