CHARACTERISTICS, TRAITS, AND BEHAVIORS OF EFFECTIVE LEADERS

CHARACTERISTICS, TRAITS, AND BEHAVIORS OF EFFECTIVE LEADERS

In an open-book company every employee is trained, empowered, and motivated to understand and pursue the company’s business goals. In this way, employees become business partners.

Characteristics and Traits

1. Drive and Passion. Leaders are noted for the effort they invest in their work and the passion they have for work and work associates.

2. Power Motive. Successful leaders exhibit power motivation, a strong desire to control others and resources or get them to do things on your behalf.

3. Self-Confidence combined with Humility. Self-confident leaders project an image that encourages subordinates to have faith in them. When combined with humility, the leader is likely to be even more influential. A key aspect to humility is being able to put people in the limelight, thereby enhancing their self-esteem.

4. Trustworthiness and Honesty. Trust is regarded as one of the major leadership attitudes. Effective leaders know they must build strong employee trust to obtain high productivity and commitment. A major strategy for being perceived as trustworthy is to make your behavior consistent with your intentions. Practice what you preach and set the example. Allowing group members to participate in decisions is another trust builder. Closely related to trustworthiness and honesty is being open with the employee about the financial operations and other sensitive information about the company.

5. Good Intellectual Ability, Knowledge, and Technical Competence. Effective leaders are good problem solvers and knowledgeable about the business or technology for which they are responsible. They are likely to combine academic intelligence with practical intelligence (the ability to solve problems based on experience). Technical competence, or knowledge of the business, often translates into close attention to details about products and services.

6. Sense of Humor. An effective sense of humor is an important part of a leader’s job. Humor relieves tension and boredom, defuse hostility, and helps build relationships with group members. The manager who makes the occasional witty comment is likely to be perceived as approachable and friendly.

7. Emotional Intelligence. Effective leaders demonstrate good emotional intelligence, the ability to manage themselves and their relationships effectively. Emotional intelligence broadly encompasses many traits and behaviors related to leadership effectiveness, including self-confidence, empathy, passion for the task, and visionary leadership. Being sensitive to the needs of others (and not insulting or verbally abusing them) is another part of emotional intelligence.

          Another aspect of emotional intelligence is to create good feelings in those being led. The good moods and positive emotions help group members perform at their best; they become excited about the task and might even be more creative.

8. Leadership Efficacy. A good way of concluding how personal characteristics contribute to leadership effectiveness is the comprehensive trait of leadership efficacy. This refers to a specific form of efficacy (or feeling effective) associated with the level of confidence in the knowledge, skills, and abilities associated with leading others. It helps to believe that you can accomplish the job when you take on a leadership role. The feeling of efficacy can be based on some traits already described, including self-confidence and intellectual ability suited to the leadership task.

Behaviors and Skills

1. Is adaptable to the situation.  A leader’s ability to function effectively in different situations. The ability to size up people and situations and adapt tactics accordingly.

2. Establishes a direction for and demands high standards of performance from group members. A major contribution of the leader at any level is to point the group in the right direction or work with them to figure out what the group should be doing.

         After setting a direction, effective leaders consistently hold group members to high standards of performance, which raises productivity. The leaders might also set high standards for directions already in place.

3. Is visible and maintains a social presence. An effective way of making an impact as a leader is to be visible to group members and maintain a presence. Being visible allows for spontaneous communication with group members and creates a relaxed atmosphere in which to hear about problems. Being visible also creates the opportunity for coaching group members.

4. Provides emotional support to group members. Supportive behavior toward subordinates usually increases leadership effectiveness. The emotional support generally improves morale and sometimes improves productivity. Being emotionally supportive come naturally to the leader who has empathy for people and who is a warm person.

5. Give frequent feedback and accepts feedback. Feedback helps in two ways. First, it informs employees how well they are doing. So they can take corrective actions if needed. Second, positive feedback encourages subordinates to keep up the good work. Listening to feedbacks contributes to learning. A leader must listen to those under his supervision and to his superiors. “We’ll be a lot wiser if we listened more – not just hearing the words, but listening and not thinking about what we are going to say.”

6. Plays the role of a servant leader. Some effective leaders believe that their primary mission is to serve the needs of their constituents, including employees, customers, and communities. They measure their effectiveness in terms of their ability to help others. Instead of seeking individual recognition, servant leaders see themselves as working for the group members. The servant leader uses his talents to help group members. Another defining character of servant leaders is their high level of integrity.