Characteristics of an Effective Leader - Essay Example

Leadership society entirely relies on leaders’ ability and how effectively they can do their work. Any leader is an individual that a greater percentage of the population will refer to for direction, inspiration, and guidance. Therefore, it is vital for any leader to have the needed aptitude to make concrete decisions in times of difficulty and to understand doing right for the people. At one point, Peter Drucker legendarily mentioned that “management is all about doing things in the right manner while leadership is doing things in the right way.

” Renowned leaders have dazzling social intelligence, a gusto for any change, and to crown it all, a vision that enables them to focus their sights on issues that really benefit the attention of the followers (Greenleaf & Spears, 1998). A higher authority is necessary for regulating and supervising other people as well as setting an example of a dedicated and hard worker. Any effective leader should possess competence, courage, and compassion. Character as majorly discussed, is possibly the most significant characteristic a leader should have.

An individual’s real character is who they happen to be when they are placed to face difficult scenarios. It is the morality and the decisions of a great leader that awards them the respectable character that other people seek to follow. Having character is essential for any leader since a leader requires the capability to see what others are unable to see, the needed sacrifices that should be made, even if it means that the sacrifices are of their own or different individuals. Most of the historically effective leaders are crowned charismatic; this may bring the need to define charisma, whether it is inborn or attained somewhere in life.

At the same time if all charismatic leaders are generally effective. Basically, charismatic leaders are very skilled in their communication styles (Greenleaf & Spears, 1998). These are persons who are born verbally eloquent, at the same time they are able to communicate to most of their followers on an emotional, deep level. These are leaders who are capable of articulating a captivating or compelling vision and have the power to arouse very strong emotions in most of their followers. Charisma is basically a process.

An interaction that takes place between the leader and the followers and the situation that calls out for the leader such as a need for change or settles a crisis. Most political leaders develop the needed skills to communicate to their followers or even convince the donors, this implies that most seasoned political personalities possess a lot of charisma. Another contradicting issue is whether a leader is born or made. This is an issue that has well been researched severally. According to Twin studies undertaken by Richard Arvey and some of his colleagues, it approximated that leadership is somehow 2 out of 3 “made” and 1 out of 3 “born.

” Generally this has some sense in it, though if much focus is placed on leadership as a set of learned techniques and skills: efficient communication, strategizing, and problem-solving among others, these take a lot of time to develop. This issue would have broad implications meant for leadership, for if it were mostly born, then leaders should just be selected and the resources that are directed towards leadership development programs should be directed elsewhere. But research has revealed that putting resources into leadership development programs makes sense (Greenleaf & Spears, 1998).

In conclusion, an effective leader should possess character, compassion, courage, and competence. All these mentioned characteristics are the components of an individual’s personality that enables him to lead others well. They will guide a leader in times of decision-making even if they are the hardest ones.