Awakened leaders: born or made? Joan F. Marques Woodbury University, Burbank, California, USA Abstract Purpose – This paper aims to review the leader of the twenty-first century, the Awakened Leader. Based on information, collected from 11 leadership thinkers and practitioners, literature review, and the author’s workplace observations, the article seeks to analyze some of the important experiences and skills that make awakened leaders so outstanding. Design/methodology/approach – This study was conducted as a qualitative study of the phenomenological kind, enriched with literature review. Interviews were executed from a pre-validated interview protocol. The approach to the topic is: definition of awakened leadership; review of the essence of awakened leadership; reasoning of the determination regarding this leader being born or made; and perspectives toward awakened leadership. Findings – An interesting combination of qualities emerged for awakened leaders varying from morals and values, ethics, integrity, honesty and trust, to kindness, forgiveness, courage, love, and deep listening. As an interesting endnote the article explains why practicing awakened leadership is easy and difficult at the same time. Research limitations/implications – The studies reviewed, although in-depth, applied to a small sample of leaders, which makes generalization riskier. Because leadership is such a broad and dynamic topic, literature review is never exhausted, and thus always relatively outdated. Practical implications – Leaders may reconsider the skills required for themselves and their workforce to guarantee successful performance in an increasingly interconnected world. Leaders may engage in reflection and work toward stronger emphasis and development of skills in which they consider themselves weak. Leaders may reexamine their work environment and consider how to minimize the factors that complicate the practice of awakened leadership in their organization. Originality/value – The phenomenon of awakened leadership as an all-encompassing and multi-applicable leadership trend is shown in the paper. Keywords Ethics, Social values, Trust, Job satisfaction, Leadership, Justice Paper type Case study Introduction The phenomenon leadership has been extensively studied in past decades. A brief review of leadership styles developed throughout the years leads us to the following incomplete results: resonant leadership (Boyatzis and McKee, 2005; Drath, 2006); servant leadership (Greenleaf and Spears, 1977; Pierce and Newstrom, 2003); self leadership (Manz, 1983; Pierce and Newstrom, 2003); laissez faire leadership (Knight and Emmett, 1999; Frittz, 2005; Canty, 2006; Pierce and Newstrom, 2003); authentic leadership (George, 2003); authoritative leadership (Fullan, 2003); coercive leadership (Pierce and Newstrom, 2003; Hughes et al., 2002); charismatic leadership (Northouse, 2000; Pierce and Newstrom, 2003; Hughes et al., 2002); team leadership (Northouse, 2000; Pierce and Newstrom, 2003; Hughes et al., 2002); crisis leadership (Mitroff, 2001 and 2005); transformational leadership (Northouse, 2000; Pierce and Newstrom, 2003; Hughes et al., 2002); and transactional leadership (Northouse, 2000; Pierce and Newstrom, 2003; Hughes et al., 2002). The reason why the above results are labeled “incomplete” is, because leadership is a highly dynamic and continuously evolving The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0143-7739.htm Awakened leaders: born or made? 307 Received January 2009 Revised May 2009 Accepted July 2009 Leadership & Organization Development Journal Vol. 31 No. 4, 2010 pp. 307-323 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0143-7739 DOI 10.1108/01437731011043339