Functionalities of a Manager for Being an Exceptional Leader

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.

For centuries leaders have been analyzed in order to determine what the traits and characteristics of a successful leader are. Leadership, as defined by Koontz and Weihrich (2008) is “the art or a process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically toward the achievement of group goals” (p. 311). Leadership plays an important role in employee’s participation, creativity, recruitment to an organization, their commitment to the organization, and productivity levels. Over the years, there have been a number of theories surrounding leadership such as the “Great Man” theory, which, according to Riaz and Haider (2010), “assumes that leaders are born and have innate qualities, therefore, leaders

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).

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.

There is no consensus that has been reached regarding this controversy, but many theories are centered on it. Chronologically, popular leadership theories include the great man theory, trait theory, behavioral theories, role theory, participative leadership, situational leadership, contingency theories, transactional leadership, and transformational leadership. Each of these theories presents a unique perspective of what comprises leadership. The main focus of this research paper is, however, the trait theory (Bass & Stogdill, 1990).

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.

Leadership is a very broad topic; I never knew just how many different traits and skills that it takes to become an effective leader. Some of which I was familiar with, and others that I was not aware of, but now from taking this course, they all seem to be necessary for the role of leadership. The attached paper, will explain of some of the important theories and concepts that I thought were most important to be able to become and effective leader.

Introduction: Any discussion on leadership issues reveals the complexity of the topic with wide-ranging views and perspectives. However leaders do share some common characteristics, and they have a positive impact on the organization and the employees. Through countless interviews, Kouzes and Posner discovered that all types of leaders, across different industries, professions and countries exhibited similar practices when describing their most exceptional leadership accomplishments.(Truedell, 2011 p. 1 Review) Various theories of leadership include the Great Man Theory, Trait Theory, Behavioral Theories, Motivational

In today’s world, leaders are not defined by age, race or gender. They can be a high school basketball coach, the shift supervisor at the local coffee shop, or even the President of the United States of America. In as many ways that leaders can vary by appearance and responsibility, there is also a variance in the ways that they lead. This case study aims to compare three of the more popular theories of leadership. These leadership theories are situational leadership, trait theory and transformational leadership.

In the middle 1940s, Roger Stogdill questioned the generally accepted trait theory which asserted that leaders’ characteristics are different from non-leaders. After a review of literature, Stogdill (1948) stated, “A person does not become a leader by virtue of the possession of some combination of traits.” (p. 130). He argued that the research failed to identify traits that are universally associated with effective leadership. Stogdill maintained that situational factors are influence a leader’s behavior; therefore, must be considered in assessments. Examples of situational factors are mental level, status, skills, needs and interests of followers, and objectives. For instance, people who are not leaders in one scenario, perhaps at their workplace, may be leaders in another situation, maybe within their community or neighborhood. However, Stogdill identified five factors or traits associated with leadership including capacity, achievement, responsibility, participation and status (p. 129). Nonetheless, he maintains that an individual

What qualities are needed to be a good manager or good leader? There are many differing theories and approaches to defining and understanding management and what makes up a good leader. Some theories believe that individuals were born with a natural instinct to manage or lead people, while other theories believe it is a learned skill through education and or developed the skills over years of experience. Whereas leadership appears and looks differently for everyone, there is a lot that goes into being a good manager, given that there are many differing theories and approaches to defining and understanding management.

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.

Becoming an efficient and effective manager is an extremely challenging role especially in today’s challenging business environment and during times of economic downturn. According to Aaron G.A. (2006), leadership is correlated to organizational and employee performance as leaders influence employees to help achieve organizational goals. Managers need to adopt a continuous learning attitude, personally aware of own strengths and weaknesses and practicing high emotional intelligence in order to be a sustainable competent manager. According to Mcgregor’s theory, Theory-X managers perceive employees to have a tendency to avoid work, while Theory-Y manager gives employees flexibility and empowerment this in return helps develop employees’ decision making skills (McGregor, D. (1960)).

To be able to comprehend the skills necessary for an individual to be considered a good leader or manager one must first understand that these traits are in fact different. While both abilities aid in the capacity to motivate a group of individuals to then achieve the necessary objectives, it is how they go about accomplishing the tasks set forth which determines one’s overall effectiveness. Typically, good leaders possess the attributes that allow for good managerial skills but the same effect does not necessarily translate in the opposing direction. As a result, this is what distinguishes an effective leader apart from managers.

For decade’s individuals, companies, and organizations have spent an unprecedented amount of money on researching, molding, modeling and working to define what a leader is and what characteristics make successful leaders. Despite all the research, there is not a quick answer or even full agreement as to what makes an individual an effective leader. The definition of a leader is “someone who can influence others and who has managerial authority.” (Robbins, Decenzo, Coulter, 2015. P.370)