Articulations Of Effective Leadership Paper

Personal Articulations of Effective Leadership Paper

What is Leadership?
Leadership is an essential quality of an individual person. According to the English dictionary, Leadership is a noun. I think that leadership and leader are both verbs. Leadership is certainly not what one has or possesses, Leadership is what one does. Leadership is an action. When I think of leadership, I don’t think about leaders or nouns, I think about actions and behaviors. Leadership is a responsibility. A leader has people who count on him/her and follow. There is a responsibility more than just for oneself and one’s own results. Recognizing and carrying out these responsibilities effectively distinguishes a leader from others. Leadership is an opportunity.
Sometimes, cultural and political forces determine who gets a chance to lead, or whose leadership gets noticed? To start studying leadership, one can look more deeply into individual personalities, at group dynamics or at social forces. From my perspective, leadership studies have progressed on all fronts. From the old ‘great man theories’ in the early years, we have now moved to an exploration of leadership traits or characteristics, studied their behaviors and the situations in which they become more or less successful and also contingency theories. Recently, new models of transactional and transformational leadership have emerged that point to a different aspect altogether: the special relationship that exists between the groups and their leader and the peculiar impact of leaders. The earlier leadership theories focussed more on the characteristics and traits of successful leaders. But, Modern leadership studies view leadership as a subtle and dynamic process emerging from the actions of groups of people (both leader and followers) working together to achieve common goals and inter-group relationships.
Leadership Essentials
I believe that there are three core characteristics that define an effective leader and distinguish the great from the common.
Effective Communication: Communication is the core of leadership.
If communication is taken away, everything else becomes irrelevant. Communication is entirely dependent on a person’s personality and open minded nature. An effective communicator not only communicates what he wants the listener to understand and perceive but before that, takes into account what the listener needs and expects them to say. An effective leader communicates powerfully and persuasively. Considering the followers as individual people with feelings and desires is the key to effective leadership communication. Leaders communicate with followers and not to the followers. Showing respect to people is one of the first steps to communicate well. Being positive and communicating what you want instead of what you don’t want is essential. Engaging the followers in the conversation by listening to their responses and feedback makes them feel heard and they act more efficiently. Listening is the flipside of the coin that is good communication. In order to provide the followers with what they need, the leader needs to listen to them and let them finish their thoughts and then take appropriate actions. Any process that involves people has a lot of different minds working together. For maximum output and efficiency, there needs to be a system where every mind is given a platform to think and groupthink. If all these ideas are brought together by sharing them within the group, there is a high chance that the
output will be more than required and success is imminent. Leaders need to treat their followers as a team who is working with them to achieve a certain goal instead of asking them what to do and how. Just like a team has varied opinions on various aspects, the followers will have opinions and feedback which, if the leader is open to feedback and provides good back and forth communication, will result in the increase of the total overall efficiency of the whole system and a higher success rate.
Emotional Intelligence: Leaders with emotional intelligence are self-aware and able to recognize emotions as they happen.
This is a vital skill for leaders, as it helps them obtain a clear understanding of their strengths and weaknesses without any obstruction. In addition, great leaders are able to perceive emotions as they arise in response to an action or situation. As a result, they are able better able to address problems and handle any future complications. The ability to express and control one’s motions is very important for a leader, but so is the ability to understand, interpret, and respond to the emotions of others. Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions. The ability to manage emotions effectively is a key part of emotional intelligence. Regulating emotions, responding appropriately and responding to the emotions of others are all important aspect of emotional management. If a leader is self-aware, you always know how you feel, and you know how your emotions and your actions can affect the people around you. Being self-aware when you 're in a leadership position also means having a clear picture of your strengths and weaknesses, and it means behaving with humility. Leaders with high emotional intelligence are able to regulate themselves and stay in control. These individuals are unlikely to rush headlong into hasty decisions or let their anger take over their behavior. It is vital that individuals in
managerial positions keep their emotions in check, as it will help them stay in a respected position. In the workplace, there’s always the risk that emerging conflicts can threaten or disrupt efficiency and productivity. However, leaders with emotional intelligence are equipped to handle conflicts and provide resolution. With this skill, leaders can quickly resolve any disagreements/conflicts that arise between employees, customers, and other parties. In conjunction with the skillset leaders possess, leaders can use their emotional intelligence to develop a more effective workplace.
Dedication: Dedication means spending whatever time or energy is necessary to accomplish the task at hand. A leader inspires dedication by example, doing whatever it takes to complete the next step toward the vision. By setting an excellent example, leaders can show followers that there are no nine-to-five jobs on the team, only opportunities to achieve something great. Success cannot be achieved without dedication. A dedicated leader not only is a visionary and knows exactly where to head but also knows how. A motivated and dedicated leader inspires others towards the cause and this causes another process to work by his favor: leading by example. Leaders display self-assurance about their abilities and foster confidence amongst followers.
Conclusion
I found a very interesting trait to relate these with, which is the locus of control. I personally believe in the fact that a person’s destiny is in his own hands through his actions. Locus of control is the continuum between external and internal belief in control over one’s destiny. Effective leaders with qualities mentioned above are Internalizers. They believe that they are in control of their own destiny and through their dedication and emotional intelligence skills, work with their followers towards their goal. All the while, communicating effectively back and forth. Leaders are self-confident and are open to constructive criticism. Effective Leaders learn from their mistakes and take responsibility for who they are and the consequences of their decisions. Through personal development and a constant growth process, a leader is able to effectively lead organisations to success and makes knowledge exchange and success, a part of effective leadership.

References

Fletcher, S. (2012, May 30). Why Emotional Intelligence is Critical for Leaders. Retrieved November 5, 2013, from leadchangegroup.com: http://leadchangegroup.com/5-reasons-why-emotional-intelligence-is-critical-for-leaders/
Jonathan Gosling, S. J. (2012). Key Concepts in Leadership. London: Sage Publications.
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Marshall Goldsmith, J. B. (2010). The AMA Handbook of Leadership. Chicago: Amacom. Lussier/Achua. (2012). Leadership. Toronto: Nelson Education.