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
