12 Habits Of Exceptional Leaders Summary

The questions regarding what makes a great leader, are they born that way, is there certain behaviors that can be taught, and can one switch from one style of leadership to another, are addressed from multiple perspectives. Three main schools of thought, trait theory, behavioral theory and contingency theory, work to explain the social phenomena of leadership. Though they pull from psychological theories, they each contribute valuable pieces that strives to solve the riddle of what makes or constitutes a great leader. However, this riddle may be far less complex, as John Quincy Adams once said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader” (Adams,

To be an effective leader, one must possess certain qualities and traits. Those qualities and traits

In the Leadership Challenge, 4th edition, it is Kouzes & Posner (2007) intention to present a road map for individuals to follow on their leadership journey. The authors stress that “leadership is not a gene and it’s not an inheritance.” Leadership they assert is “an identifiable set of skills and abilities that are available to all of us” (p. 23). They make clear that the “great person” theory of leadership is “plain wrong.” Leaders are our everyday heroes who do extraordinary things on a regular basis (p. 23).

This theory is based on the premise that there are certain personality characteristics that are essential for a person to possess in order to be a leader. The main emphasis is on what the person is in terms of a constellation of personality traits. This theory searches for that set of universal leadership traits that will assure success. Numerous traits have been suggested: courage, integrity, loyalty, charisma, ambition, intelligence, honesty, clairvoyance, persistence, arrogance, health, political skill, confidence and vision.

The road to becoming an exceptional leader while rewarding, is one filled with numerous challenges. Developing the necessary skills required in order to successfully lead others is a life-long process. In this paper, I will discuss in details my leadership qualities. I will include results from my Seven Habits Profile, evaluate my strength and weaknesses and adopt leadership theories that will help guide my self-evaluation. In addition, I will analyze proven theories that will help me address skills, weaknesses, and behaviors in my leadership skills. These theories-based changes will help form and guide my set of SMART goals. I will draft a plan for success in my journey towards becoming a great leader.

Over the past couple of months, we discussed several traits, skills, and behaviors that have contributed to the success of both past and present leaders. Intelligence, integrity, charisma, and confidence are some of the traits that characterize many of these leaders. Interpersonal skills, oratory skills, and conceptual skills are some of the more important skills that helped to shape their leadership style. Some of these skills go hand in hand with the traits that are essential for strong leadership. Meanwhile, the behaviors that drive these leaders include inspiring and motivating others, collaboration, having a strategic perspective and trust. Combined, these traits, skills and behaviors make for effective leadership.

Winston Churchill, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, Jr. – all possessed such leadership traits as ambition, self-confidence, and intelligence. These cannot be learned; they are innate. Two well-respected research studies that support the notion that personality traits can predict leadership were published in the Journal of Applied Psychology and in the Leadership Quarterly.

The world’s greatest leaders, both past and present, all share very similar traits and qualities. However, the best leaders all have traits that appeal to the masses and allow them to take control of any situation. The best leaders have astounding charisma that inspires others. They also have communication skills that allow them to easily talk to everyone. Lastly, they have a sense of dedication that motivates them to get the job done. While many of the world’s greatest leaders share similar traits, the best all have qualities and traits that allow them to appeal to the masses.

What leaders really do? This is the question I am sure everyone asked themselves many times. John P. Kotter wrote a book in title “What Leaders Really Do”, and throughout his book he explains how the role of good leader should look like. The book states that most organizations lack good leadership, and Kotter is trying to help its reader to understand what real leaders really do. True leadership, he reminds us, is an intangible quality, and too often we confuse management duties and personal style with leadership, or even mistake unworthy leaders for the real thing. With John Kotter on What Leaders Really Do, readers will learn how to become more effective leaders as they explore pressing issues such as power, influence, dependence, and strategies

19). Still a part of the Great Man Leadership era, these trait theories just went a step further in attempting to pinpoint exactly which traits of these “great men” were consistently associated with the leaders, in an effort to more clearly define what a great leader was. This was again a further attempt to be able to identify a leader early on and predict which individuals were born to become leaders. It is thought that a major flaw with these theories was the failure to account for external factors, such as the environment in which the individuals were brought up in, as well as the situations they experienced (Horner, 2007, p. 270). Still today we do continue to study the characteristics of leaders in order to better define and understand what makes someone a good leader.

Leadership is often defined as the ability to motivate a group of people to accomplish a task. Leaders, both good and evil, have been accomplishing this daunting task since the beginning of time. Which brings us to the question of the relationship between morality and leadership. When studying great leaders from history it is apparent that many men considered evil are also considered highly effective leaders. This indicates that the characteristics of an effective leader transcend morality. Three characteristics that are crucial to effective leadership and can be observed in leaders, both good and evil, include communication, courage and loyalty.

As a growing debate, the question at hand is whether great leaders are born with specific leadership traits, or if one can be taught certain traits over time. According to (Wikipedia.com) the approach of listing leadership qualities, often termed "trait theory of leadership", assumes certain traits or characteristics will tend to lead to effective leadership. I believe that leadership traits such as honest, competent, initiative, inspiring, hardworking, intelligent, and the ability to lead the masses, are some of the leadership traits one should possess. Within this paper, I will examine the overall concept of leadership traits, while observing the traits that were, or can be associated with successful leaders.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect and make an analysis of the general strengths and weaknesses of a leader, provide recommendations, thoughts of overall performance to improve on this person’s leadership style in which practices and theories were utilized most effectively. Upon such, draw conclusions and provide an integration of this leadership practice into my own leadership practice. The accomplishment of this will be achieved by identifying several key practices from published documents surrounding and encompassing the leader, and comparing them to known relative concepts for a holistic view of the approach.

The Trait Approach was the 1st systematic attempt to study leadership. In the 20th century it was known as the “great man” theory. This approach takes a look at the leaders personal attributes such as but not limited to: motivation, energy, intuition, creativity, persuasiveness and foresight. Some of the traits that are essential to this list include: intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity and sociability. Thus it focuses mainly on the leader and not on the followers or situations. The strengths of the Trait Approach includes: 1) it is intuitively appealing, 2) it has research to back it’s theory, 3) it highlights the leader, 4) it identifies what the traits of a leader should have and whether the traits we do

Great leaders are able to identify their leadership style, and through continuous assessment of their own abilities as leaders, they are able to develop and understand their own abilities and strengths. When someone is able to understand his or her strengths and limitations, then they are able to develop and grow themselves into effective leaders. This also helps them to challenge themselves to find new skills to improve themselves through practice. After an assessment of my own abilities and strengths, my personal theory states that a leader should be a transformational person, acting on a set of both ethical and moral values. He or she should be able to be an inspiration, and empower others to achieve their goals. Various traits and skills are the guiding values, which inform my personal theory. This paper will discuss into details leadership traits, skills and values in my personal model.