62. Leaders are created by the demands that are placed on them. 事实Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting you

The speaker asserts that leaders are created by the demands that are placed on them. I partly agree with this point that in a historical perspective of view leaders are created by demands. However, leaders do not only negatively fulfill the demands placed on them but also actively take in part to elaborate and refine the demands. Leaders are distinguished from other common employees for their ability to refine, discover and invest in the uncovered demands.

Admittedly, from a historical perspective, leaders are seemingly created by demands of other people. Each team needs a leader, who can carry them to make the common goal. Leaders with certain characteristics are elected according to demands. In the gathering-collecting society, where people’s physiological needs were at first place, tribe leaders often good at finding food and water-resource. During the eras of wars, due to the public’s strong want to ending the war as quickly as possible, leaders with brilliant military intelligence staged out, such as Mao Zedong, Charles de Gaulle, Stalin, were elected. In the peaceful era, public seeks for political leaders who can enhance the sense of safety and bring further development. To respond to the public’s demands, president Obama promised to carry medical reforms which benefit low-income citizens, president Xi promised to regulate the estate markets and provide affordable residences for new urban residents. Through the overviews of three periods of time, we found that the attributes of political leaders, which made them elected, are closely related to the public’s demand.

This perfect match between leaders’ attributes and public’s demands makes us think that leaders are created by the demands. The under assumption is that, if there is no such demands the corresponding leaders will not exist either. However, this assumption is oversimplified and failed to discuss several questions: who creates the demands and whether leaders could only negatively be chosen according to the demands or not?

While the speaker asserts that leaders are created by the demands, I seriously question the word “demand”. Who proposes these demands? Who decides which demand is more urgent and should be prioritized over others? In the field of politics, the public, the electors are supposed to be the most adequate people to propose their demands. However, it is impossible for all citizens to reach a consensus about which demands are most urgent, about the great number of populations, the differences in their social status, education backgrounds and incomes. This problem applies also to the field of commerce. We rarely see one report telling us about all citizen’s current demands in politicians, or all consumers’ demands for products, not to say we chose leaders according to the reported demands. Except for the public, scholars are suitable to propose demands. Through observation, interview and field survey, they can portray the public’s demand in a relative scientific way. However, scholars are often financed either by nations or by private companies, who play the role of leader. Thus, scholars’ investigation into demands presents leader’s active attitude in searching public demands. To conclude, although the speaker contends that leaders are created by the demands, we cannot find the actor who place these demands on leaders. In contrast, we found that leaders of one country or of a company usually support research into public demands and they assume actively the responsibility to satisfy these demands.

Furthermore, successful leaders do not only analyze public’s current demands but also anticipate, undiscovered and create their future demands. To anticipate future, it requests leaders to have brilliant insights, sensitive observation, extraordinary creativity and accurate judgement. It is these characters that makes them leaders and differentiate them from common workers. Facebook, a online social community created by Mark Zuckerberg, has brought unprecedented communication methods to people and changed our social behaviors. Alipay, an application of payment found by Yun MA, allows people to exchange with digital moneys and has changed the former concept of currency which has been prevalent for thousand years. Mark Zuckerberg and Yun Ma are two influential leaders in the business world. Their experiences prove that successful leaders are good at self-searching potential demands, raising new demands and creating unprecedented products.

To conclude, in a historical perspective of view, leaders are seemingly created by demands for the match between their attributes and the public’s demands. However, in reality there is no real actor who places these demands on leaders and force them to fulfill the public’s needs. Leaders actively search, define and materialize people’s demands. Just as Steve Jobs used to say that people do not know what they really want, until someday you show it to them.