Good leaders are not born - they are made.

One weekend recently, after attending a leadership workshop, I found the above sentence was not only true, but also reflected the essence of leadership: people choose to be leaders instead of being chosen.

I spent more than six hours with 28 "future leaders", students from Fudan, Jiaotong and Zhejiang universities and the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. The workshop opened with a speech by their chief learning officer, about the company sponsoring the event and career development paths. That was followed by the examination of case studies, which took up the majority of the time.

It was the second time that a leadership workshop of this kind had been held in Shanghai. More than 50 students were enrolled to learn about how to lead. Although I am not sure how many of the graduates had already obtained or would obtain positions of influence in business on the basis of such training, I am pretty sure that the experience would give them an advantage in job hunting. It would help the trainees to approach their job search with more confidence, because they can offer employers what they want from their employees - experience and vision.

Some people might still be suspicious about the effect of such training. Can one be made into a leader by just instructions and simulated experiences?

Central to effective leadership capabilities is the ability to understand one's strengths and development needs. The focus of individual leader development is the stimulation and reinforcement of individual development for people in a wide variety of leadership roles, which these people can then do for others.

In many Western countries, it is rather easy to pick up such training in leading capabilities. As long as a person has the desire and willpower, he/she can find a way to learn to be an effective leader. The process might cover self-study, education, training or real experiences. Even if the person hasn't been in a leadership position, such courses can help him/her through that process.

In China, by contrast, it is much more difficult for people to get similar opportunities. Though some elite business schools provide courses on cultivating business leaders, the entry requirements are beyond the capacity of most young people. It seemed that only after a person has worked for many years or been promoted to a leading position can he/she be entitled to such leadership training. During the time youngster are still pursuing their studies or developing their abilities, they are hardly in a position to grasp such opportunities.

Thus, many young people gradually learn to be good employees instead of good leaders. They learn to accomplish their own tasks well instead of inspiring and motivating others in their teams from the beginning of their careers. The idea of developing themselves to be leaders is foreign to them. Perhaps this is the reason why Chinese employees are always described as mild and disciplined rather than ambitious or inspiring.

In the leadership course, there was mention of a "Great Event Theory", which means when someone is placed in special circumstances it can bring out extraordinary leadership qualities in an ordinary person. This is what I have learned from the workshop and it can break the mould of our traditional views about leadership.

If people can choose to become leaders, why not start with you?