Chapter 1: In Search of Innate Leadership : Discovering, Evaluating and Understanding Innateness

• Main Authors: Morra, Erica, Zenker, Lisa
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för organisation och entreprenörskap (OE) 2014
• Subjects: genetic inheritability; gene expression; genetic determination; gene mutation; case study; innatism; traits; leadership; behaviour; brain development; brain function; neural pathway; neural coding; SNP variation; connectomics; genomics; heritability; leadership theory; DNA; competencies; environment; education; behavioural psychology; genetics; trait theory; nature vs nurture; dopamine; neurotransmitters; polygenetic traits; Google; Hitler; personality; innate leadership; Morra; Zenker
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-34622

Every individual is born with different natural competencies that can be honed by both voluntary and involuntary environmental stimuli. The response our genotype decides to make, if any, towards those stimuli, determines how well our competencies develop. Each person’s coding and variations of genes will result in unique qualities in their phenotype, or physical structure. As a result, a person has various traits that are displayed through their behavior. DNA is genetically shown to express itself through traits by up to 75%. This leaves a sort of buffer of around 25%. This region is available for us to adapt to our environmental stimuli. Your innate qualities will not reach their full potential without stimulation from the environment, in a leadership case, with education and training and therefore it can be argued that environmental exposure is necessary to fully expose the potentials and capabilities of an individual, rather than instill a new skill or develop a talent that was not existent before. Innate leadership is not a permanent state, on the contrary, it is a continuously adaptive situation demanding contextual evolutionary changes or resignation from the subject occupying the role. When the needs and demands of a society or era outweigh the relevance of the innate leaders' traits and competencies, an evolution of leadership is needed to maintain a positive relationship between all parties involved. As a result, the innate leader will begin to lose their innateness in their role and unless they evolve and adapt (because the two actions are not the same) to new contextual needs, their tenure as leader will begin to be detrimental and counter-functional. What we want to put forward is a real, universal and constructive understanding of what makes a human happy, motivated and productive and how an innate person in context is a much better solution in the short and long run, for those around them when put to a task.