Leadership is a common and simple word but very hard to define due to its

complexity composition. Actually, everyone is a leader and at least a leader to

themselves. Those who can lead themselves actually a successful person. In this
review that take from article of Understanding Leader Development: Learning from
leaders written by Aoife McDermott, we are going to discuss about the type of
leader development because to be an effective and efficiency leader, the leader
need to undergo grooming process. There are 5 themes of leadership themes. First
is are leaders born or made? Second is Leadership and the attainment of balance.
Third is the role of emotion in leadership. Fourth is leadership is an individual action
or a collective and lastly is there one best way in leader development?

Before proceed with first point, lets find out the meaning of leader
development. In this article, the author said that the definition of leader
development is the expansion of a persons capacity to be effective in leadership
roles and process. From this definition, we can conclude that, the leader
development is the development of personality and human capital of leaders. So,
from this definition, there is an argument between some researchers that
questioning whether leaders are born or made? If leader are born, there is no need
to have a development process since they already have relevant and natural skills
and vision. But, from the authors research, he found that an exposure to early role
models and the adoption of early leadership roles also can shape the leadership
skills of the child instead of leadership trait. Furthermore, the level of a leaders
career also can influence leader development since through career they can gain a
lot of skills like problem-solving, system skills, knowledge, social skills and so on.
Thus, the good leader is not only from personal traits but a complex integration
between personal traits, early life experience and career related opportunities.

Leadership theme two is discuss about leadership and the attainment of

balance. Effective leaders are often perceived as a person who are capable of
prioritizing

and

communicating

business

needs.

They

can

balanced

their

responsibility between work and personal domains. Leader who fail to maintain and
achieve balance always faced with a pressure and stress. From the finding, the
manager who is high work life balance were rated higher in career advancement

potential by peers and supervisor compared to those who are lower work life
balance. Thus, it very important to develop the balancing skills in leader in order to
maintain the quality of jobs.

Next is the role of emotion in leadership. Goleman argues that a leader's

ability to understand, manage and use emotional awareness is an aspect of a
leader's emotional intelligence. The good control of emotion can enhances the
quality of relationships and improves reactions to problematic individuals and
situations. Besides, it can developed the interpersonal and emotional competencies
overtime rather than in the context of a development program. The most
importance is, leaders mood and affective displays can influence the collective tone
and mood of a group or an organization. Like Gary Zukav said that we cannot
control what emotions or circumstance we will experience next, but we can choose
how we will respond to them. Hence, as leadership is an inherently social role,
emotional skills are critical component of a leaders development and effectiveness.

Apart of that, some researches debate are leadership is an individual action

or a collective activity? This going to be a forth leadership theme. Some of the
researchers said it is an individual action. Some of them said that it is a collective
activity since most of the secret recipe for the organization to success is because of
a product of the collective effort and expertise of others. Nevertheless, it actually
complement each other. The leadership is an individual action when it comes to
necessity to have a person that can manage a large group and it also a collective
activity when it comes to necessity to corporate each other to reach the
organizational goal. William Arthur said that leadership is based on cooperation not
intimidation.

Last but not least, is there one best way in leader development? Based on
current research, they found that the leader development is and individual
experience influence by a series of contextual factor which are qualities, style,
leader traits and categories. However, actually the leader development is depend
on the current situation. For example, when there is and economic instability crisis

or major change bring increase uncertainty and anxiety thus it need the leader to
develop new leadership skills and strategies in order to maintain the sustainability
of the company.

As a conclusion, there are many leadership theme that can use for the
development of the leader. Hopefully, when the leader undergo a correct and
continues grooming process, it can produce a good and effective leader.