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.
As a leader you have the duty to both care from your workers and care for the task at hand. A good leader doesn’t solely care about the workers or solely care about the task. A good leader finds a natural balance between the two. A leader must do whatever is possible to best motivate the workers and get the most out of them. The workers should understand that there is a task at hand to complete, however it is the leader’s responsibility to ensure the workers “buy into” the task and understand the importance of its success.
Responsibility - A leader should posses a sense of responsibility towards organizational objectives to get maximum capabilities out of employees. Self-confidence - Confidence in oneself is important to earn the confidence of the employees. A leader must be dependable and able to handle situations with complete willpower. Humanist - A leader must be sensitive towards employees’ personal situations and treat them with care and attention. Empathy - The capacity to understand the problems and grievances of employees and the view of the needs and aspirations of the employees that would assist in improving and strengthening human relations and personal contacts with the employees.
In order to become a successful leader the person has to think like a leader in being confident, being firm with the team, being an expert, and caring about the followers. Confidence is one of the requirements to be a leader. When the person is confident and he acts as he is in the right place, then that one gets trust and respect from his followers. Moreover, is to be firm, but kind at the same time. The leader should put the rules and the frontiers.
Their thoughts and perceptions can help others to follow them. They should also have a positive and confident attitude and be able to instill their confidence in others. With that confidence should also come commitment, and leaders should be able to commit to their actions - committing with confidence breeds confidence in others. It has also been said that leaders should have high moral standards because people will not follow those they do not respect. Furthermore, good leaders do more than just supervise or manage their teams: they feel a sense of responsibility, and in return the team members know that their leader cares for them and cares for the business.
“A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be” (Carter). Leadership is a very important quality or characteristic to have. Being a leader shows people that you have courage, honesty, and know how to manage. Leadership is giving people the confidence they need.
Different people have different opinions on the concept of leadership. In the transformational leadership model, leaders set direction and help themselves and others to do the right thing to move forward. To do this they create an inspiring vision, and then motivate and inspire others to reach that vision. Being a good leader not only requires a lot of experience, knowledge, skills and acting efficiently, but also requires transparency, accountability and being ethical. According to Allio (2012) good leaders require both competence and integrity.
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
Leadership: The activity of leading a group of people or an organization or the ability to do this. Leader: The person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country. Leadership requires a set of skills which are essential in order to be a successful leader. For instance, a leader must be passionate about the role they play in order to inspire others to join them. They must be able to communicate their thought process in order for outsiders to fully apprehend their vision.
A leader sees a follower’s capacity and strength to help accomplish the goal. Managers are more focus on measuring the achievement of the team. A manager makes sure the setting is appropriate to the meet the goal. A manager makes sure they have control of the situation. Leaders are innovators, always on the look to make a better way to reach their goals.