Tamara is the CEO of an energy firm. She is known for her natural abilities to manage crisis and guide her team through effectively. Kevin, one of the managers at Tamara's organization was of the opinion that it was the "heredity" factor that plays a

major role in Tamara's leadership abilities. However, Kevin's fellow worker, Allen, feels that hereditary factor alone is not sufficient to become a complete leader. If you were Allen, how would you justify his stance?

The traits, motives, and characteristics required for leadership effectiveness are caused by a combination of heredity and environment. Leaders are both born and made. Personality traits and mental ability traits are based on certain inherited predispositions and aptitudes that require the right opportunity to develop. Cognitive intelligence is a good example. We inherit a basic capacity that sets an outer limit to how much mental horsepower we will have. Yet people need the right opportunity to develop their cognitive intelligence so that they can behave brightly enough to be chosen for a leadership position.
Evelyn Williams, who directs the leadership development program at Stanford University, makes the following metaphor: "I think leadership is a combination of nature and nurture. Just as some musicians have a special talent for playing instruments, some people seem to be born with leadership abilities. But whatever their natural talent, people can certainly learn to be better musicians—and better leaders.". The physical factor of energy also sheds light on the nature-versus- nurture issue. Some people are born with a biological propensity for being more energetic than others. Yet unless that energy is properly channeled, it will not help a person to become an effective leader.
Advances in neuroscience provide additional evidence that there is most likely a genetic and biological component to leadership. David Rock, founder of the NeuroLeadership Institute in Australia, points out that an effective leader is adaptive, such as knowing when to be dogmatic versus collaborative, or when to focus on details versus the big picture. To be adaptive, a person needs an integrated brain. Such integration requires strong connections across all regions of the brain. These connections are mostly genetic although they can be enhanced though mental activities such as creativity training. When the brain is well integrated, the leader can switch between different approaches with ease, such as being tough and unforgiving in one situation and displaying empathy in another. Research about emotional intelligence reinforces the statements made so far about leadership being a combination of inherited and learned factors.
A person's genes, therefore, influence the emotional intelligence necessary for leadership. However, experience is important for emotional intelligence because it increases with age, and a person usually becomes better at managing relationships with practice.