Leadership Attributes

Question: What do we mean by leadership. Answer: Leadership attributes Individuals may well be attracted to, selected for, or successful in leadership roles early in their lives and careers based on their analytic intelligence. However, it is very important to first understand what is really meant by the term leadership. According to Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy in their 8th edition on leadership, leadership is a process that involves influencing others towards achieving a set of group goals. Many people like to think that they can make good leaders but the most important question to ask yourself is, do you have what it takes to influence and direct others toward achieving the laid out goals?. In as much as some people are born with the ability to lead, there is more to leadership than just being able to stand in front of a group of people and use the power of words to influence these people to do something. It takes much more to be a good leader and this where the issue of experience, intelligence and wisdom comes in. Good leadership requires intelligence and wisdom. People tend to confuse the meanings of these terms by thinking that wisdom is just another term for intelligence. However, there is a difference between the two. Intelligence is the ability of the mind to comprehend, use thought and reasoning for problem solving and is a quality that every leader should have but intelligence as a stand-alone tool for leadership is not as effective. There is need to couple it with other aspects such as wisdom. Wisdom refers to the deep understanding of the reality of things, events and situations. It is therefore very important for a leader not only to be able to comprehend situations but also to have a deep understanding, so as to be able to deal with situations with the thoroughness that leadership matters require. Over time, the experience that leaders gain when dealing with matters of leadership helps in making them wiser so that they are able to handle situations better. The meaning of leadership Effective leader behaviour depends on many variables. It follows that there is no simple prescription for effective leader behaviour, which begs the question, is effective leadership merely a matter of opinion or subjective preference? I do believe that every person has their own understanding of effective leadership. What one might consider good leadership, another person might consider poor leadership. This is because just as different people have different personalities and ways of doing things so do leaders. Different leaders have different ways of doing things, for instance; one leader may prefer to involve his team members, consult them in some matters and even roll up his sleeves and join his team members in doing what needs to be done in a bid to achieve their goals. An example being, in a company, the team leader of a group of workers in a certain department may involve his team members in setting up goals for that department to be achieved within a given period of time and may even go out of his way to actually be involved in some activities towards goal achievement while on the other hand another leader could prefer laying out guidelines, dictating and allocating duties to his team members who report to him about the progress. It is clear that these two leaders have different ways of handling issues, the first one getting involved and working side by side with his team members while the other one dictating and giving out orders to his team members while expecting results and progr ess to be reported back to him. This goes to show that effective leadership is a matter of opinion. Hughes, Giginnett and Curphy have clearly illustrated in their 8th edition on leadership about what leadership is all about. According to them, leadership is a framework made up of three aspects; the leader, the followers and the situation. Leadership cannot exist without these three fundamental aspects. A leader needs to acknowledge his followers while the followers need to respect their leaders and work with their leaders in order to be able to achieve their goals. Leaders are basically the torch bearers when it comes to goal achievement because they are the ones who come up with brilliant ideas as well as ways and strategies of achieving these goals. On the other hand, the leaders should also acknowledge that they have a great responsibility of ensuring that they deliver what is required of them. They should also work with followers in accomplishing these goals that is followers should not feel left out in the leadership process. Also of importance is to note that there is always a situation when it comes to leadership, a situation that needs to be addressed and so those three aspects are what make up effective leadership. References Polelle, M. (2008). Leadership: Fifty great leaders and the worlds they made. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. Glanz, J. (2002). Finding your leadership style: A guide for educators. Alexandria, Va: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Tracy, B. (2014). Leadership. New York, NY: AMACOM. Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Sadler, P. (2003). Leadership. London: Kogan Page Ltd. DuBrin, A. J. (2011). Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.