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Natural born leader?

Is there any such thing as a natural born leader?

This article was written by Martin McLean who is deaf and works as a Project Manager for Deafinitely Theatre, a company that produces plays in British Sign Language. Back in 2000 he completed a degree in Genetics at the University of Sheffield and has enjoyed using his past knowledge and understanding of the field to link in with Sync Intensives.

Is there any such thing as a natural born leader? Even in modern society there are plenty of examples of dynasties that would suggest this to be so: George W. Bush and his father have both been American presidents, brothers Ed and David Milliband rose to the top of the Labour party, the Ghandis, the Kennedys, the Benns and so on. Closer to home, I have noticed that the Deaf community is dominated by strong families where deafness has been passed down from generation to generation and it is members of these families who are seen as the community’s natural leaders. Did their genes make them stand out or was it the environment they were nurtured in? What does this mean for those of us not born into such families?

Examples at the top

Ed and David Milliband share half of their genes in common.

It’s never easy to prove that behaviour is linked to genes as opposed to environmental factors. After all, George W. Bush grew up with a very influential father (from whom he inherited approximately 50% of his genes) who became President. His family were also extremely rich which helped him to fund his campaign to become Republican leader.

It can be argued that George Junior’s progress had little to do with genes at all but power and money. (He certainly did not inherit any superior intelligence!)

Being brothers, Ed and David Milliband share approximately 50% of their genes in common. They both grew up in the same household with the same parents and had a very similar education, attending the same schools, and eventually, Oxford University. With both brothers growing up in the same environment how can we possibly link their political success to their genes?

The evidence

The answer lies in behavioural genetics research that has been carried out on the inheritance of behavioural traits. Twin studies have been used to measure the heritability of traits such as intelligence, neuroticism and extraversion. These look at the frequency in which identical twins (who will have identical genes) share a trait within a population. This percentage is then compared with data collected from non-identical twins (siblings born from different eggs, sharing on average 50% of their genes). If there is a significant difference in the percentages we can conclude that there are genetic factors coming into play.

The table here shows some interesting results:

(From Human Molecular Genetics, Sudbery, 1998)

If there was very little genetic influence on a particular trait then we would expect the concordance values to be similar between identical and non-identical twins. This is because non-identical twins have also grown up in the same environment as each other. However, we do see quite significant differences in the figures. This suggests that there are strong genetic components to many fundamental human attributes. It is therefore very conceivable that leadership is heavily influenced by our genes.

Traits

I am not in any way suggesting that a ‘leadership gene’ exists in a single entity like the gene connexin26 which is the most common gene that causes inherited, profound/severe deafness.

The diagram above shows how the connexin26 mutation can be passed on to the next generation. The red dot represents a mutated copy of Connexin26.

To read more about Connexin26

There is no way that the ability to lead could come down solely to the inheritance of a single gene as we see in the diagram above. After all, there are many different qualities that leaders hold as well as many different types of leader.

This leads me onto trait leadership theories: some psychology researchers’ work has been focused on finding a group of heritable attributes that differentiated leaders from non-leaders. Zaccaro’s 2004 model identified traits such as extraversion, neuroticism, honesty and openness as being positively or negatively correlated with leadership. As we have seen from the table above, extraversion is strongly influenced by genes.

To read more about Zaccaro’s 2004 model

As we have seen from the table above extraversion is strongly influenced by genes. It makes sense that extroverts are more likely to be natural leaders as being outgoing means having the natural desire to engage and influence others. It should be said that the search for the characteristics of leaders is nothing new. Greek philosopher Plato explored the qualities that leaders possess in his work, Republic.

To read more about Plato's views on leadership qualities

What does it mean for us?

If leadership were found to be largely innate... is there any point in leadership development courses such as Sync Intensives?

It is clear from research that ability to lead is potentially influenced by a number of genes that affect the development of our personalities.

This brings up a controversial question: If leadership were found to be largely innate as Will Frehley (2009) argues in his book, is there any point in leadership development courses such as Sync Intensives? Why bother spending time and money trying to develop ‘ungifted’ people into senior managers or influential artists?

To read more about Will Frehley's book Leadership is Innate

I would argue if leadership were innate then it shows a greater need for courses such as Sync Intensives to help people identify skills they can develop as well as finding the passions that will give them the desire to lead. Some people may be born in a better shape to be a leader than others but it should be noted that many personality traits show an inheritability of approximately 50% (see extraversion and neuroticism in the twin studies table).

This means environmental factors are affecting 50% of the variation. Our genes simply predispose us to turning out in a particular way. Whether we do or not depends on our environment and life experiences.

My thoughts are echoed by others. Some experts such as Bennis (1975) have complained that ‘most people do not have the faintest concept of what leadership is about’ and that it is a myth that leadership is innate. Forsyth (2009) states that ‘most people through diligent effort and careful mentoring can acquire the skills to be an effective leader’. Us mortals do have hope after all!