Why are "natural born leaders" dangerous to businesses?

This article explores the notion of being a “natural born leader,” and questions whether this is a dangerous attribute for recruiters to seek out.

 

Time for a cliché

Is there a bigger cliché in the world of business and management than that of the “natural born leader?” The answer is that there probably isn’t. There are enough books and HR professionals that preach about the notion of “leaders or managers?” around the world that you could probably fill a small country with all of them and let them squabble amongst themselves.

A common answer in this debate is that leaders are born, and managers are made. While you could probably point at various individuals throughout history that would back up the point, the fact remains that, in business, it is an outdated and extremely dangerous attitude to take. We explored why.

 

The finished article

Depending on the recruitment policy of a business, they will either look to bring in raw talent that they can mould into the leaders they want within the organisation, or they will look to the finished article. If a business is looking for “natural born leaders” then they are likely to go for the finished article, or at least that is what you may think. Consider, however, that many businesses now promote from within, and their only intake of new recruits is to graduate schemes. 

How on Earth can you tell if someone is a natural born leader at the age of 22 or 23, especially if they have spent the last 18 years in full-time education? However, this is the outlook taken by many businesses, who look to recruit based on whether they think you could be a manager or leader in the future, and when you are in the business you are either moved up or moved out very quickly. That means that there are potentially thousands of highly skilled graduates missing out on positions, who could be valuable assets to businesses, simply because of a vain wish to hire “born leaders.”

 

A development vacuum

The other problem is that businesses who recruit “born leaders” then don’t bother to invest any time or financial capital into the development of their management teams. And why would they, if they hold the misguided view that these people are already all they are going to be, and cannot be taught anything that they don’t know or possess naturally?

It is a common feature of failed businesses of recent times that their leadership and development has been poor. The modern, forward-thinking business realises that leaders can indeed be born, but still require a lot of direction and knowledge in order to reach their full potential.

Posterita is an inventory management software for chain stores and single stores to manage operations on a web based platform.