Can Leadership Become a Profession?

Is leadership a result of inheritance or is it something one learns during formal learning in e.g. business schools? This is the essential question addressed in this article. The article is based on a case study involving a new leader in charge of a group of profession practitioners. The leader promotes his leadership as a profession comparable to the professions of practitioners. This promotion implies that leadership is something one can and probably must learn during formal learning. The practitioners on the other hand reject this comprehension of leadership and long for a fellow practitioner to lead the organization. While asked they are unable to describe how, where and when they think a practitioner develops leadership skills necessary for leading fellows. In the following we will start analysing the case in order to comprehend and discuss both the professional leaders and the practitioners implied understandings of leadership. The case analysis will afterwards work as a vehicle for the discussion of our main question: is leadership a question of inheritance or something to be learnt in formal learning?