Leadership - Research Paper Example

One of the foci of these varied discourses is the concept of leadership and the way it affects the efficacy of any organization. The reason for laying emphasis on this topic is multifold. First, the importance that effective leadership holds in functioning of any sort of activity is self-evident: a football team cannot perform without a coach, a company without its CEO and a family without a head. Secondly, the failure of leadership has evidenced some of the most drastic failures of the history: empires with lazy kings, companies with ineffective heads and teams with incompetent captains have, been the driving force behind the downfalls of their tenure.

It is for this reason that this paper focuses on the leadership and skills that make up a good leader. The paper dwells into the effective leadership styles and the skills, which are important in building strong management strategies, which subsequently help in strengthening the structure of any organization or a company. Unlike popular beliefs, there is no one formula of a good leader. Every task has a different context to it and leaders, or rather good leaders, differ from one task to another.

Thus, a good leadership strategy in one field may not be the optimal plan of action in the other (Koestenbaum, 2002). Therefore, a good leader understands the situation he is surrounded with, and performs in accordance with the situation. For example, the soccer coach of a primary school team and that of a country’s premier league team seem to be alike, but in reality are very different. The coach of the primary school team cannot use the same disciplinary methods or motivational speech as those of the latter coach.

His audience is different and so he needs to be more loving and less strict in his attitude than the professional coach of a much bigger team is. Thus, there is no one definition of a good leader. However, there are some primary uncontested skills, which form the base of all sorts of leadership styles and are therefore very much in demand. Some of these skills are explained here: Time-Management Time management is one of the most fundamental skills necessary for effective leadership. A good leader not only manages his time well but also plans effectively for his her team.

Here, time management does not only refer to planning schedules and sticking to it but also to the active attitude. A good leader is always on the go and does not slack or lay off work for the next day. Leaders are also very goal-oriented. They envision an end and then set more specific, short-term goals that lead to that bigger aim. Importance of time management best reflects itself in the example of Mughal emperors of India, who, due to their distraction to gambling and women, lost their empire to British reign.

Self-Confidence Self- confidence is another very important tool of good leadership. Self-confidence means that the person has faith in his own self and really believes in his ideals and actions. A good leader can only inspire others to work for the goal if he really believes that they all are capable of achieving that goal. On the other hand, an insecure or unconfident leader who is doubtful of his own ideals will not do justice to the responsibility that he bestowed with and will inhibit the goal achievement process of his team (Goleman, 2004).

People skills The most important of all the leadership skills is the skill to deal with people. A good leader invests resources in building rapport