Analysis of Leaders Characteristic - Research Paper Example

Introduction: Leadership is a widely recognize term in today’s professional world. People, organizations and companies need good leaders. There should be a leader to run the companies and organizations. The role of a leader is very important in a group as he is the person who guides and organizes the team to its success. A leader is a person acceptable to all and is selected through voting system or by ones own wishes. It is very important that people desire obviously to become leaders. This paper mainly focuses on the characteristics of leaders. A set of definitions on leadership is given and the main traits of leadership are discussed over this paper. The main characteristics of leadership such as self-confidence, good communication, humility, interpersonal influence, trustworthiness, forerunner, sense of humor, dynamism, authenticity, readiness to be held responsible and ability to maintain cordial relations with the people are presented in detail in this paper. The world has witnessed several great leaders. Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela are some of the examples. The qualities they treasured in their life are also briefly discussed in this paper. The last part of this paper discusses the difference between the leaders and managers. The leaders are very innovative and creative while the manager works mechanically. Leadership: The term leadership is familiar to all the groups, family, society, organizations, companies etc. There are several definitions for leadership. A single definition of leadership does not give a comprehensive view of this quality of a human being. So we have to take a set of definitions of leadership to have an understanding about it. Leadership could be defined in the following ways. “Interpersonal influence, directed through communication toward goal attainment. The influential increment over and above mechanical compliance with directions and orders An act that causes others to act or respond in a shared direction The art of influencing people by persuasion or example to follow line of action. The principle dynamic force that motivates and coordinates the organization in the accomplishment of its objectives. A willingness to take the blame First figuring out what is right, then explaining it to the people, as opposed to first having people explain to you what is right, and then just saying what they want to hear.” (DuBrain, 2009, p.3). From the given definitions of leadership we can assume some leadership qualities and characteristics that are required for a leader. The first definition gives interpersonal influence and communication as the two main characteristics of leadership. These are the most important two qualities required for a leadership. Interpersonal influence means the ability of a leader to conquer the heart of their followers. The leader should be friendly among his people their by maintaining his commanding power. Instead, he has to develop the skill of influencing people to get in tune with the objectives of the group or the organization. This is not a matter of fearfulness, but is a matter of convincing. They have to convince the people by giving adequate explanation to follow their views. To convince people, they should influence the heart of the people by their life, action, conversation and culture. The next quality given in the first definition is communication. Communication is the most significant quality of a leader. But, in the fast growing world, the ways of communication have been changing day by day. The purpose of communication is the goal attainment of a group or organization. A sound communication depends on power, sincerity, clarity and lifestyle of the communicator. The communication should reach the people or the group. Various means of the communication in the advanced world are news papers, television, e-mail, internet, phone and other types of electric messaging systems. There should be an influence over the people rather than a mechanized way of ordering. The people should feel novelty in all the communication. The leader has to be motivated and then he has to motivate the people around him. He has to take the first step that is to be followed by the group. The leader is the forerunner towards the target of the group. If he is a forerunner, he should know every thing related to the target of the organization. A person who does not know the objectives of the organization cannot control or guide the people in the organization. He should forecast things like the position of the group or the organization after one or two years. Persuasion is a required skill for leadership. It’s a way of tempting a group towards the goal. The leaders should be very clear about their goal and ways of attainment of the goal. Coordination is arranging or designing the things in par with the goals. A dynamic force is necessary for the coordination especially in an organization. A leader has to design a plan or method to control the entire group. The leader has to control and guide the group according to the methods predestined. It is sure, that the leaders have to overcome several crises in their journey towards the goal. The success of the group lies in the hands of a leader. The leader will be criticized from outside the group and inside the group. Therefore, the leader should be ready to be blamed. A different method in the leadership is that, leaders must figure out what is good to attain the goal and let people give their explanation on what is right. Finally, they must explain things to the people what is right and the group will be ready to hear the leader. Traits and Characteristics of Leadership: The most important traits and characteristics of leadership are self-confidence, humility, trustworthiness, sense of humor, authenticity, enthusiasm, optimism and assertiveness. Self confidence: “a leader who is self-assured without being bombastic or overbearing instills self confidence in team members.” (DuBrain, 2009, p.34). A self-confident leader will never try to insist the group members to complete the tough projects before the deadline. Instead, he will motive them with his successful past experiences. He assures them his support and commitment to the team to attain their goal. This way of speaking and dealing with the group members will help them to get self-confidence. “Self confidence is not only a personality trait. It also refers to a behavior and an interpersonal skill that a person exhibits in a number of situations.” (DuBrain, 2009, p.34). Humility: “Part of humility is admitting that you do not know everything and cannot do everything, as well as admitting your mistakes to team members and outsiders.” (DuBrain, 2009). There are leaders who think they are the authority of knowledge and are always perfect thereby assuming whatever they do is good. This attitude is not a good trait for leaders. Leaders who cherish this attitude in them cannot win the heart of their followers. “To err is human but to correct it is divine” (DuBrain, 2009) is a proverb which is a good example for the human traits. Trustworthiness: “An effective manager or leader is supposed to walk the talk, and thereby showing a consistency between deeds (walking) and words (talking).” (DuBrain, 2009). A good leader should practice his words and it is observable that many leaders are not practicing the words in the life. It can be a scandal for the followers and because of this the followers will never give any due respect to the leaders. The group members should have the freedom to share anything with the leader and he will give a solution. Whatever is being shared by them must be very confidential also. Sense of humor: The group members should enjoy the involvement of the leaders. The leaders should know the accurate time to crack the jokes. This will reduce the pressure on the employees is very high in most of the organizations and companies. The directions given to the employee must be very clear and at the same time they should like the ways of getting directions. Therefore, the leader should be very vigilant to reduce the high pressure given to them. Authenticity: it is one of the important traits needed for a leader. The group members should feel that he is the sole authority over them and the directions and guidance received from him could be done in full confidence. He should not depend on some one for the advice and directions. Even though he receives the directions from a higher authority, the followers should not feel that the leader is waiting to get the directions. Enthusiasm and optimism: The leader guides the followers towards an objective about which he is confident. So the leader must be very active and enthusiastic to lead the group members towards it. He should be available to everyone at any time and he must clarify the doubts of the group members. There are possibilities for risks and flaws at any time in an organization or company. He should be optimistic about the ultimate success or the goal attainment. He will be accused of the flaws by the outsiders and insiders. Being an optimistic, he has to keep his mind from tensions and pressures looking at the future Assertiveness: The leader must be very assertive in his words. The order must be very clear to the group members. There is possibility of misunderstanding because of the communication mode. The leader should try to avoid confusions caused by improper communication. This kind of the problem is created because of the communication mistakes. So, the thing that is communicated must be very clear to the followers. Leadership qualities of great leaders: There are extra-ordinary leaders that the world has ever witnessed such as Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. They were having the essential skills of leaders. These three leaders had a unique way of leadership. Three of them realized the miseries and pain of ordinary man. They were good leaders because they could win the heart of the people. There was leader like Adolf Hitler who was not accepted by people. As a leader he did not have the ability to engage people in communal connotation People obeyed him out of sheer fear. When we take the cases of above suggested leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, we can understand that they cultivated a set of leadership qualities. They have: the ability to engage people in communal connotation as they led a group of people for common end. Second quality was a distinctive method and voice they had, making them unique personalities from other people. When we observe their personality, we can realize that they were persons of integrity. They practiced in life whatever they told to the people. The forth quality was the adaptive capacity they had in various situations and contexts A book titled as “principles of Management” written by Tripathi explains some of the important characteristics of leaders and they are the following: 1. “Leadership implies the existence of followers.” (Tripathi, 2008, p.302). The word leadership gives so many concepts to be pondered over. It implies the meaning that there are followers and we like to ask how many people are there under your leadership. Therefore, we can say that the nature of the leadership is the influencing factor of the followers. 2. “Leadership involves a community of interest between the leader and his followers.” (Tripathi, 2008, p.302). There will be a common interest in all the groups. Therefore, it is the ability of the leader to explain and make them to imagine the common interests. 3. “Leadership involves an unequal distribution of authority among leaders and group members.” (Tripathi, 2008, p.302). The distribution of power is another quality of good leadership as it is very necessary for the growth of the group. The leader can choose some people who are able to assist him to implement his strategies in the group and they could be given unequal power. 4. “Leadership implies that leader can influence their followers or subordinates in addition to being able to give their followers or subordinate legitimate directions.” (Tripathi, 2008, p.302). There are leaders who give only orders. But, they cannot influence the heart of the people. If the leader wants to influence the followers, he should be ready to understand the follower and he has to think from the follower’s side also. The leadership can be of two types and they are democratic leadership and autocratic leadership. In democratic leadership people choose the leader identifying one’s skills. Here, people cast votes for choosing leader. If there is a unanimous opinion, he can be chosen unanimously and if there are two candidates for the position, one among them can be elected by identifying the majority of the people. But, in autocratic leadership the leader choose the position himself. He is not at all bothered about the opinion of the people. Here, a subject about autocratic leader rises up. It is not necessary to be a good leader. Perhaps, he may be a person who does not meet any requirement of the leadership. The same problem lies in the democratic leadership also. The people may fail to understand a good leader. The Difference Between a Leader and a Manager: There is a good difference between a leader and a manager the difference is given as: “Leadership: Reasearch Findings, Practice, and Skills” (2009) written by Andrew J. DuBrin and “Principles of Management” (2008) written by Tripathi. Tripathi has put forwarded four points regarding the difference between the leader and the manager. ““A person emerges as a leader and it depends on number of situational factors” where “a manager is always put into his position by appointment.”” (Tripathi, 2008). The manager takes his position by mere appointment and leadership skills are not very important as far as it is concerned for a manager. The manager works mechanically giving directions and orders while leaders are very creative. ““A leader has always some personal power” while the “manager has positional power.”” (Tripathi, 2008). The leader can influence a person and this influence gives him power over him. But, the manager has power over the employee only when the employee is in the office. ““There is mutuality of objectives between the leader and his followers” but “there is clash of objective between the manager”” and his employees. (Tripathi, 2008). The leader and his followers share the objectives and there is no chance for conflict and clash between them. But, when a case between manager and employees is considered; there are a number of possibilities for clash in relation to objectives, performance, direction etc. Leaders versus Managers: Andrew J. DuBrin in his book has given the basic difference between the leaders and the managers. They are “The leaders are visionary, passionate, creative, inspiring, innovative, courageous, imaginative, experimental, independent, shared knowledge and trusting while managers are rational, business-like, persistent, tough-minded, analytical, structured, deliberative and authoritative.” (DuBrain, 2009). From these differences between the leader and the manager, we can understand that the basic difference between them is; a leader works naturally and creatively while the manager works mechanically. The manager is mechanical in nature. He cannot identify the problems of the individuals. He is not creative and innovative and he cannot understand the basic problems of the employees. Whereas, a leader is different in away that he is creative and innovative. He can identify the problems of his followers. Whenever he finds a mistake in him, he is ready to accept and correct it because he works with the followers. But, a manager is above the employers and he acts accordingly. Conclusion: Leaders play an inevitable part for the smooth running of all the organizations, companies and groups. The main characteristics of leaders are self-confidence, good communication, humility, interpersonal influence, trustworthiness, forerunner, sense of humor, dynamism, authenticity, readiness to be blamed and cordial relations with the people and these qualities of a leader and these qualities of the leaders are depicted in this paper in details. As a conclusion, we can say that there are a lot of situational factors that encourages in becoming a real leader. Reference List DuBrain, A. J., (2009). Leadership research findings, practice and skill. Cengage Learning. Retrieved May 7, 2010 from http://books.google.co.in/books?id=t7UiysAaXBkC&pg=PA305&dq=ten+characteristics+of+leadership+article&hl=en&ei=5UziS9oazqmsB_yxwNkC&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CEMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Tripathi., (2008). Principles of Management. Tata McGraw-Hillp, 302. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=trMz8Jy89C8C&pg=PA302&dq=characteristics+of+leadership&hl=en&ei=JqjjS_LiLNGzrAebxKTkAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=8&ved=0CGMQ6wEwBw#v=onepage&q=characteristics%20of%20leadership&f=false Read More