Facets and Traits of Good Leadership

A leader must be able to lead others, build trust, extend influence beyond the Chain of Command, lead by example, and communicate effectively. The ability to develop creates a positive environment, fosters Espirit de Corps, prepares self, develops others, and are stewards of the profession. Last but not least, effective leadership must achieve results.

Leadership is, and always has been, a vital aspect of social and economic constructs. It is essential to the survival of societies, industries, organizations, and virtually any group of individuals that come together for a common purpose. However, leadership is difficult to define in a single, definitive sense. As such, theories of leadership, what constitutes a great leader, and how leaders are made have evolved constantly throughout history, and still continue to change today in hopes of improving upon our understanding of leadership, its importance, and how it can be most effective in modern organizational cultures.

Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.

A good leader needs to have formal training to develop good leaders and leadership from day-to-day (Ferrell R.S.,2016). A good leader needs to be confident in making the decisions on the job. I think the best leader has to build up their skills in life but others say they are born that way. . .

Leadership is the ultimate form of service; it requires leaders to devote much of themselves to deal with the responsibilities that come with the title. They not only serve as normal members, but they must make important decisions with their followers’ interests

A well-researched knowledge-base is a necessity. Organization is also key to being a leader. A leader must plan thoroughly to properly direct the group. Even though careful planning is crucial, a leader must remain flexible when problems arise. Remaining humble is also important. Once a leader raises her/himself above the group, s/he will lose respect and will be seen as a ruler - and not a leader. A leader must see eye-to-eye with the group to retain an effective role. To manage the needs of the group, a leader must be trusting enough to allow others to help. If a leader makes all the decisions without the group’s input, or does not allow the group an active role, the group will no longer agree with the leader and will not feel valued. The leader’s effectiveness and respect form the group will the drop. The group must also trust the leader to make wise decisions. Despite the fact that these qualities are mostly seen when leading a cause, they can be extended to other roles of leadership.

A good leader understands himself or herself. He or she must have a clear goal that others are able to see and understand. A good leader must be reliable and motivated so that he or she can lead others. A good attitude is also very important for effective leadership. A leader with a good attitude can make a difference in their workplace, among colleagues and improve the environment.

A society with an absence of leadership is one that exhibits disarray and pandemonium. Leadership, therefore, is a vital facet of human life and can be seen as a building block from which great nations were built upon or large corporations have thrived under. I believe leadership is intrinsically in all human beings, however some leadership traits in people are far more superior than others. This paper will evaluate results from multiple assessments that identify my particular leadership potential. Using Northouse’s text, this paper will also identify my particular strengths and weakness within leadership. The penultimate paragraph of this paper will consider how my evaluated leadership style interacts within my work environment.

In the world today, there are leaders everywhere such as Parents, Pastors, The President, CEO of Companies, Supervisors and World leaders just to name a few, these individuals can be good or bad, for you or against you. A leader is a person that sees things through in order to make change either in the mental growing aspect of one’s life, the economics of the world, or spiritual belief. The characteristics of a good leader are the leaders’ ability to inspire others willingness to leader and integrity.

People requires good leadership skills at personal, professional and social level. Personal leadership helps us to determine our desires, strengths and abilities. It means Knowing what we want out of life; knowing what success is for us; what are our goals and how to achieve those goals regardless of what other people think, say, or do. Personal leadership helps us to make our present better and shape a good future.

In my twenty or so years of employment, I worked under several types of leaders. Some were effective while others were ineffective. This course gives plenty of examples and descriptions of both effective and ineffective leadership styles. I understand the significance of pairing effective leadership with appropriate followers. Assessing each party’s traits prior to putting them together, which aids in decreasing tension. In this paper, I am discussing my experiences with bosses and leaders in different aspects of life.

In my reflections as I prepared to write this paper, I came to the realization that leadership is much more complex especially since the paper requires that I focus on a few traits. In an effort to make it simple, I wrote down the traits that came to mind and in process had over 10 important traits but an even bigger challenge was on how to narrow them down to 3 or 4 and this is the place that required a good deal of reflection. Eventually, however, I had to prioritize them since in any case; it is not possible to get a leader that has all the traits. As I thought of the various leaders who have inspired me, I noticed that while they strived to provide the best leadership by focusing on their strong points, they still had their weaknesses. To me this provided a justification for at least identifying key desirable traits and thereafter working to improve them. I did manage to settle on four traits, which for me are indispensible if a leader or a leadership is to become effective.

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 word leadership has lost its power. A leader, in today’s vernacular, liberally signifies any individual who occupies a position of authority or management. Leadership is more than a discounted buzzword or entitlement. There are an infinite number of interpretations of leadership and no singular, definitive solution. However, despite the seemingly insurmountable challenge that leadership is, authors James Kouzes and Barry Posner scientifically defined what makes a great leader. Their book, The Truth About Leadership: the no-fads, heart-of-the-matter facts you need to know, provides ten truths that define proper leadership.

Leadership in my mind and how the books explain the roles of a leader is that you must have the knowledge and the skills to be a effective leader. Defining leadership can have different meanings for different people. Leadership occurs in groups and the groups become the followers of the leader. Leaders need to initiate the relationship, create the communication and carry the burden of maintaining the relationships , (pp. 2-3).