Leadership is a learned quality, which depends on the personality of the leaders, situation, task and the followers (Ganepola). Developing leadership skills can be managed by various activities. Being a good leader is a process. Practicing leadership skills, create an effective leader who achieves his or her goals by working together with an effective team. Hence, self-discovery helps to know more about the strengths and weaknesses of a person.
There are, however, numerous traits and characteristics that have been found to be important in contributing to the effectiveness of a leader. These traits and characteristics include: “intelligence, dominance, sociability, self-monitoring, high energy, self-confidence, tolerance
Managers must work twice as hard as their subordinates to ensure that they are affectively empowering and leading their team in a positive and assertive manner. Leadership should not be based on how long a person has been with an organization or whom the person may know, but rather should be based on the character and competence of the individual. Warren Bennis once said, "leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality." Exceptional leadership is imperative in every organization. If a leader or manager is weak or passive, their team or employees become weak and misguided.
There are lots of article and books available suggested that different personality features are necessary for become a good leader. Many researcher define different trait for effective leadership. One of the researcher Stogdil’s (1974) identified some traits that include intelligence, information, accountability, self-assurance and public skills. One more study suggests that some of the traits linked with leadership without any situation like task completing, powerful skills with dealing different people, flexibility, bravery, talent to inspire others and be aware the desires of other peoples (Cherry K
But leadership requires and good judgment, especially in evaluating difficult situations and focusing on what it is important for the team. A person who leads will be on the forefront of issues, will have to face critisicsm, attacks, setbacks ets. It needs courages for someone to lead. Finally, all leaders needs passion, a quality that boosts morale, promotes synergy and can drive organizations in expansion of through difficult times. All these traits are the basic building blocks of leadership and all the other aspects as good communication, innovation, crisis management etc flow from these seven.
People look up to leaders and developing and maintaining trust is a key part in leadership. Trust, integrity and honesty work in both directions. Leaders need to trust their subordinates just as much as followers need to trust their leaders. The third characteristic of an effective leader identified by Pearson-Goff and Herrington (2013) is legitimacy. Legitimacy plays a part in leadership through the old adage ‘been there, done that’.
These may include power, influence, followership, dynamic personality, charisma, goals, autocratic behavior, innovation, cleverness, warmth and kindness. We may also think about leaders we have worked with in the past, or are currently working with, and reflect on the qualities and behavior of an effective leader (Curtis, de Vries, & Sheerin, 2011). Leadership is defined as a process of influence in which the leader influences others toward goal achievement. Influence is an instrumental part of leadership and means that leaders affect others, often by inspiring, enlivening, and engaging others to participate (Dubrin, 2015). The process of leadership involves the leader and the follower in interaction.
Their style exemplified leadership. Managers get their authority and power from being appointed to a position by more senior managers. Leaders get their authority and power from being able to influence and persuade others to follow them and this is why leaders are often referred as being recognised as such by their followers, in fact, they can’t be leaders until they have people to follow
Understanding leadership Describe the factors that will influence the choice of leadership styles or behaviours in workplace situations Leaders are performing different styles of leadership, as each leader maintain to develop her/his own personal style. Many factors may influence the style a leader uses. Some of the factors may create naturally, while others are a product of the leader's environment. Some leaders may need to improve their leadership style to follow to a changing culture. a.
William Arthur Wood once said, “Leadership is based on inspiration, not domination; on cooperation, not intimidation”. Leaders are there to help guide, direct and influence employees and people. However, there is so much more to leadership than guiding and directing. A leader leads people in the direction he or she believes will help a group of people become more desirable. Many traits must come together for a person to become a good leader.