Leadership Traits and Skills - Term Paper Example

Leadership Traits and Skills Leadership traits and skills is a broader managerial section that requires a lot of attention. The definition of the term traits varies; it may refer to personal attributes, incorporating all the personal personalities, values, temperament and motives. Personality traits simply mean how a person behaves in a particular way for instance being confident, employing high energy level while performing daily activities. Motives involve a desire for something for example, physiological motives like hunger, social motives like power and authority, independence and success. These needs are important, to motivate and influence someone in performing duties. Values are attitudes of what is right or wrong, moral or immoral. These values are very important in an individual’s life; they influence ones perceptions and behaviors in whatever they do. Values reflects a lot in ethical leadership and someone who claims to be a good leader should guided by strong moral values. On the other hand, the term skill refers to the ability of an individual to perform their duties effectively. This paper presents a thoughtful discussion on leadership traits and skills that every leader should poses. Quite a number of researches have been conducted to explore the aspect of leadership traits and skills. One of these studies is done to examine a person’s trait and skills that can either qualify to be an ethical leader. Secondly, to check how the managers’ traits and skills are being applied in the course of their management to ensure effective leadership, relating each type of trait and leadership effectiveness. Thirdly, these researches were done to predict the improvement of management through measuring required skills through interviews tests and other relevant information. The last study was conducted basically for comparison. To compare those managers who were advancing to those who lagged behind due to their dismissal or quest for early retirement. Some of the findings specifically on derailed managers showed that these managers were weak and lacked interpersonal skills that are a major requirement for any manger who intends to succeed. In personality trait and effective leadership there are some selected traits that accompany effective leadership. These include high energy level, personal integrity, emotional maturity, high self confidence, and achievement orientation. Researchers have proved that high energy level and stress tolerance are the main drivers of the success of many mangers because they help the manager to handle tiresome and long working hours without fear as well as managing all those stubborn customers that come their way. Effective problem solving techniques are required by leaders to ensure effectiveness in their leadership. High level of stress may tamper with the work of the manager due to lack of motivation and loose of morale that it causes. Being a manger demand a lot of responsibilities and therefore accompanies the position. Self confidence has been proved to contribute positively on the effectiveness of any type of leadership. Self esteem and self efficacy separates an effective leader from the one who is not. Some studies show that charismatic leadership is promoted by self confidence. Emotional maturity can be defined as the ability to incorporate all the moral values, and motives. Again researches reveal that managers with high level of emotional maturity do evaluate themselves keenly and are aware of their strengths and weaknesses. They are accommodative to different people they work with since they are not affected by the mood swings and anger. In most of the organizations where there is accountability and effectiveness in management, there is a lot of maturity among the top manager in that organization. This shows that emotional maturity of leaders in any given organization maters a lot and managers who show emotional maturity credits the organization due to their way of handling various matters. Integrity means that a person’s attributes relates with the moral values, honesty and trustworthiness. Adair posits that integrity involves “both personal wholeness and adherence to values outside yourself- especially goodness and truth” (Adair, 2010, p. 6). Being honest and trustworthy attracts many followers hence good leadership. Honest managers driven by strong personality ensures leadership advancement as opposed to deceptive managers. Keeping promises and satisfying the interest of followers are evidence of a leader’s integrity. A leader who intends to set a good example to others in the managerial field can be viewed as a leader with good values and a role model to many workers and other leaders too. Achievement orientation is another trait that every ethical and charismatic leader requires. This involves the desire to come up with ways to facilitate ones need to pursue what they intends to, to succeed in their goal and fulfill their dreams as well as meet their set objectives. Many researches done concerning the relationship of achievement orientation and leadership effectiveness and advancement shows that these two aspects are work interdependently. However, these results are clear that managers with moderate achievement orientation perform effectively and advance more in their managerial job as compared to those that have high or low achievement orientation. According to Juras, managerial skills and technical skills are both necessary in leadership advancement and effectiveness. Juras argues “technical skills, which are their most developed skills, are mostly required on the lowest managerial levels, while conceptual skills, which are least developed, are mostly required on the highest management levels. When it comes to interpersonal skills, they are equally required on all management levels” (Juras, 2010). Adair argues that these qualities are needed by any individual who wants to be a leader and should be portrayed and exercised appropriately for the effectiveness and advancement of the person’s leadership. All these personal attributes are very important to be adopted by any leader in every organization (Adair, 2010). In conclusion, leadership traits and skills is a large and sensitive aspect that every organization should put into consideration during recruitment of managers. A good and effective leader should prove the possession of all these traits and other valuable skills that will promote the productivity and growth of that organization. However, the above discussion also presents that too much of these traits is poisonous and do no depict the effectiveness and advancement of leadership. References Adair, J. E. (2010). Develop your leadership skills. Philadelphia: Kogan Page Limited. Juras, A. (2010). Traits, skills and leadership styles of managers in croatian firms. Management : Journal of Contemporary Management Issues, 15(2), 67-84. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/821553269?accountid=45049 Read More