What Makes An Effective Executive?

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.

Being the president of the United States is one of the most prestigious and difficult jobs. The fate of millions of people rests in their hands. The president is the leader of their country. A good leader can bring prosperity wile a bad leader could bring death to a nation. James David Barbers article, “The Presidential Character: Predicting Performance in the White House” addresses types of leadership and how the president’s personality can affect their success in office. The premise of Barber's argument in The Presidential Character is that he believes presidential personalities fall into four categories and combinations of activity, passivity, positivity, and negativity and those personality combinations can be indicative of presidential performance.

Being the president of the United States is the most challenging position one can have. The president of the Unites States wears numerous hats; nonetheless, not every president takes the same attitude on the job. In 1972, James David Barber who was a professor at Duke University published a book titled “The Presidential Character: Predicting Performance in the White House.” The book was signaled as a study of presidential characters, and simply perceived the temperament and personality in assessing how the country’s Chief Executive approached the presidency. Though there were defects in Barber’s approach in his effort to determine the personalities of multiple presidents, his method was indeed very interesting and worthy of trying. Now, let

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.

In the book The Presidential Difference: Leadership System from FDR to Barack Obama (2009), Fred l. Greenstein, a professor of politics emeritus at Princeton University. Identifies six leadership traits that shape a presidency. Professor Greenstein argues his point, by outlining examples from the past 11 presidents lack of skills; and how these six traits highly influence that character of a running candidate’s presidential administration. According to Greenstein in order to have a successful presidency there are six steps that must take place.

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,

The president has many responsibilities, many of which are both physically and emotionally draining. Because of the many fatiguing tasks that the president is required to do, it is imperative that the American people analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the potential president’s leadership skills during each voting period. Out of all of the many traits that are necessary for capital leadership, integrity can be identified as the trait that is the most crucial to the

One of the most important qualities that someone in a management position must have is leadership. Moreover, leadership means according to Starling (2011), “the process of influencing the activities of a group in efforts toward the goal attainment in given situation” (p.341). However, a leader does not use force to control the group, but rather they express the group. Furthermore, a leader must have the qualities and expertise to guide the group adequately. Moreover, a good leader must have certain characteristics: the concern of impact, diagnostic use of the concept, efficiency orientation, proactivity, conceptualization, self-confidence, effective communication, managing group process, socialized power, and perceptual objectivity (Starling, 2011). These are essential qualities of a good leader. However, current president possesses six qualities that make them good leaders. These qualities are communication, organization, political skill, vision, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence (Starling, 2011).

Researchers have focused their efforts towards the link between effectiveness of leaders and personality traits. They tend to reach a consensus indicating that the effectiveness of a leader is established by her/his personality traits. In this context, the performance and success of leaders is measured by personality traits. Organizations use different models to assess an individual's personality traits. Some strategies employed to determine included the use of trait approach in establishing whether a leader is charismatic (Anderson, Reckenrich & Kupp, 2011).

Those whom have obtained the presidency have done so based on successful political careers. However, not all whom have held presidential office have endured the fortune of a successful presidency. Many are the theories that seek to identify the qualities of a successful president. Yet the question remains, why have some been able to transfer the success of their political careers into the Oval Office while others have had lackluster terms? What variables are possessed by some that enable success while others struggle during their four years as commander in chief? Undoubtedly, successful leaders must have the ability to properly and effectively communicate, adapt to situations quickly and efficiently, and relate to those being led.

Leadership is a process which delivers a position of power held by an individual, this authority enables him to mobilise and direct the team efforts towards its goals.

After taking the assessment, to my surprise, my score was a thirty-three. The evaluation stated that between twenty-eight and thirty-six, is very good, my effectiveness as a leader is high (Manning & Curtis, 2012).My initial reaction to the score, I was somewhat surprised by more score, but the questions made you think about your skills and what it is that you do on your day to day already. Which is a lot of helping others to achieve his or her goals as well as to becoming successful. In reviewing some of the questions in the assessment, it helped me to think about what it is that I want to do in my career. I also think it helped me to understand more of myself. I know I have the skills to be a leader one day, but before when I first started

“true rhetoricians understand the importance of symbols and sturdy photos; certainly, a number of the most effective speeches in records revolve round a robust image, or halo,” as Heinrichs calls it. While it’s controversial whether realistic knowledge, virtue, or disinterest is the maximum essential element of character, distinctive feature is genuinely the maximum essential factor of ethos in terms of management. Leaders don’t just coach different people what to do; they embody positive values and attitudes. For an instance, American presidents aren’t just evaluated at the merits of their rules; they’re judged for their individual, because—for better or worse—leaders want to have exact individual (or at least the appearance of correct character)

Theodore Roosevelt, who was the 26th President of the United States, once said, “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it” (as cited in Access: AVID’s Educational Journal, 2008, p. 1). Being a respectful leader is challenging; however, Carlos Ghosn, fitting Roosevelt’s description, have overcome difficulties and proved himself to be one of the most competent leaders.

What qualities make a good leader? You can ask a hundred different people, and you will get a hundred different answers. A good leader is someone who accomplishes the mission, has the respect of their subordinates, and makes the difficult decisions when needed. For me, I believe that a great leader needs to have a variety of qualities, but most importantly a sense of fairness, hard work/care, and common consideration for others. Different experiences throughout my life and time at West Point have lead me to believe that these three tenants are what are most needed for a great leader. In terms of a leader’s moral character, common consideration has the greatest influence on the success of a leader, because without common consideration, a