Leadership is vital for the functioning of the family, group, society, business, government or any other organization. Since planning, executing, reviewing and controlling are the functions linked with every organization, they require a critical force in the form of a leader to design, execute, co-ordinate and control all these functions to help accomplish the desired objective with efficiency. The human relations movement of 1940’s and 1950’s gave further emphasis to the concept of leadership indispensability to business and government. Since then, a lot of research has been done in the area of leadership, which is still considered to incomplete because each piece of empirical research illustrates less known aspects of leadership.
The concept of leadership has undergone change over the period. Upto 1930, leadership was believed to be something of the nature of personal traits – a characteristic of the people, which was the monopoly of only few persons. The supporter of this theory held the view that their characteristics or traits are intrinsic. Therefore, the concept of “born leadership” or the concept of “leaders are born not made” became popular. Later on others had the view that these traits may be acquired. Leadership is regarding coping with change.
Leaders always develop a vision for future and there by establish direction. After that, they communicate their vision to their disciples and motivate them to overcome the hurdles. In other words, leadership is defined as ability to influence a group towards achieving the desired goals. Organizations do need strong leadership as well as strong management for the real effectiveness in their achieving of objectives. In today’s dynamic world, we need creative leadership with dominating vision for future and effective skill in inspiring organizations and the employees to achieve their objectives.
The most common traits in the characteristic of leadership are:
- Empathy: Creating a good rapport with your staff makes it less likely that personal issues and resentment can come in and derail the group. When your team knows that you are empathetic to their concerns, they will be more likely to work with you and share in your vision, rather than have negative feelings.
- Consistency: Being a consistent leader will gain you respect and credibility, which is vital l to getting buy-in from the group. By setting an example of fairness and credibility, the team will want to act the same way.
- Honesty: Another characteristic of leadership that lends itself to credibility. Those who are honest, especially about concerns, make it far more likely that problems will be addressed rather than avoided. Honesty also allows for better evaluation and growth.
- Direction: Having the vision to break out of the norm and aim for great things –then the wherewithal to set the steps necessary to get there– is an essential feature of good leadership. By seeing what can be and managing the goals on how to get there, a good leader can create important change.
- Communication: Effective communication helps keep the team working on the right projects with the right attitude. If you communicate efficiently about expectations, issues and advice, your staff will be more likely to react and meet your goals.
- Flexibility: Not every problem requires the same solution. By being flexible to new ideas and open-minded enough to consider them, you increase the chances that you will find the best possible answer. You will set a good example for your team and reward good ideas.
- Conviction: A strong vision and the willingness to see it through is one of the most important features of leadership. The leader who believes in the mission and works toward it will be an inspiration and a resource to their followers.
