Are leaders born or made?

Some people usually say that they are not born to lead, that they would never manage to be good leaders. That's something that each one of us has think some time. I'm sure of that.

Who had never think that something is impossible to do? Who had never forgot a dream because it was difficult to achieve?

Some people are natural leaders, they are born knowing how to lead, how to motivate people and with a vision to accomplish. Some examples of this kind of people are Gandhi, Mandela or Jesus Christ.

Others, the biggest majority, have to work really hard to be good leaders; it's necessary to read a lot of things, to fail a lot of times, but finally, with effort and perseverance, the inner leader inside us will go out.

It's necessary to find the mission we have to lead, to find the project that we dreamed and we have to find the team to achieve our vision. With those ingredients and the will to work, you have a lot of possibilities to be a good leader....this is the advice I can give you from my experience...some leaders are born leaders, but the biggest majority worked a lot to be one of them.

Everybody has a potential leader inside, let him express himself :)

Below, you can find the answer of some people to the question I asked on the title of the post: "Are leaders born or made?"

Rosabeth Moss Kanter (Professor, Harvard Business School)



Mitt Romney (fmr. Governor, Massachusetts)

A little effort can change a life...

Since I was really young, I had to hear this question from my father:

"Why aren't you looking to my eyes when you talk to me?"

My usual answer was to get angry and to stop talking to him, but my thought was that I had to change that because it causes a really bad impression.

In September 2005, I was selected as participant in a BEST Trainshop: bePROUD 2005 that took place in Kiten (Bulgaria). In that event, besides a lot of other things, they told me something that my father was telling me since a lot of time before:

"Eye contact is really important to be perceived as a trustworthy person"

Since then I started to think on looking to the others' eyes when I was talking to them, I tried it at home, looking at presenters eyes in the TV,... It was hard at the beginning cause it was tiring, difficult to do and even not comfortable. I started keeping the eye contact just with really close friends and gradually I expanded that behavior to the rest of the people until it became something automatic, not forced anymore. I noticed that, some time after internalizing it.

Now, two years after doing that big effort, it's easier for me to talk to people, to lead projects, to speak in front of an audience, ...

This little gesture: to focus on the other instead of on the environment when you are talking to somebody can change a lot your relationships, the way the people see you and even the future of your career.

It's an effort worth to do.

If you need some theoretical tips on how to achieve this goal, this website may be useful.

Desarrolla tus habilidades directivas con Isban

Hace tiempo que tenía este post pendiente pero no había encontrado el momento hasta ahora.

Durante los días 28, 29 y 30 de noviembre estuve en Madrid con Víctor en un Seminario para el Desarrollo de Habilidades Directivas y Empresariales organizado por Isban. Durante aquellos tres días, hubo presentaciones buenas, otras muy buenas y otras impresionantes.

Aquí podeis ver las que a mí personalmente más me gustaron.

¿Quién me motiva a mí? José Ballesteros


Inteligencia Emocional Juan Carlos Cubeiro


Hablar en público y presentaciones eficaces y persuasivas Ovidio Peñalver




Durante el día, 10 horas de presentaciones...bueno, alguna menos porque nos saltábamos las del Grupo Santander que eran un poco aburridas; y por las noches, un día toco de cañas, otro de cañas con unos iraníes y gente de BEST Madrid (las almejas estaban buenas, eh!) y la última noche tocó salir con los abuelos de BEST Valladolid.

Para terminar el periplo por la capi....al volver a Valladolid, nos compramos unos chalecos de Umaguaqueño en la Estación Sur por 2,5 €....con los que después salimos de fiesta en Valladolid. Pero esta historia...para otra vez :)

Seven habits of highly effective people

Today I have found a mindmap about leadership, about habits that can really help a leader to accomplish his tasks in a correct way.




Summarizing, a good leader should be highly efficient doing his job to be available for his team as much time as possible. For that Kaizad Irani described seven habits that a leader should have:

+Self Renewal: he has to mantain his motivation alive, and for that, mental and physical renewal are needed :)
+Synergy: it's basic for teamwork, it makes easier to solve the problems ;)
+Communication: without it...nothing is possible.
+Win-Win: everybody has to benefit from the work of the team.
+Personal management: a leader needs to have clear priorities and time management skills.
+Proactive: if the leader is not proactive...nobody will follow him.
+Goal Setting: make people dream on their goal...and they will achieve it :D