Although many people believe that having many of the traits makes one a leader, the most important thing in leadership is the vision. With no ability to see the picture of what is going on, all the possessed qualities would be wasted. The best leaders have a vision of where they want to take themselves and their organisations. In the Holy Bible(Probers29), its mentioned that” Without vision people perish”.Maxwell(1993, p. 17), in his work states” A great leader's courage to fulfil his vision comes from passion not position”.He explains how people become great leaders by beginning to change the way they think which leads to change certain behaviours. Those people start to act the part of the person they want to become.
Visionary leadership is transformative. It involves greatness, penetrating the ordinary, and reaching through time to bring out the best the best world has to offer. A visionary leader anticipates events, influences the future, and enables people to florish in fundamental ways. In associations, this means perceiving challenges and growth opportunities before they happen while positioning the association to produce extraordinary results that make real contribution to the world. Leaders with vision have total involvement, tremendous work, a willingness to put everything on the line, and continuous engagement.
Mahatma Gandhi for instance, did more than recognising the value of religious tolerance and sovereignty for the people of India, he used his life to make it possible. He drew on everything to instigate the changes he was seeking. His leadership therefore, demonstrates that people with vision not only have a clear idea of what is possible, they are involved in bringing it about.
The point here therefore is that although there could be inherited qualities that are valuable such as good communication, being articulate, the ability to think on your feet, intelligence, dominance, self confidence, and so on, there is a need for a vision.
A leader's vision is his definition of what success is to him. He is the person who knows what is to be done and it is his job to ensure that he conveys this picture to the rest of the team correctly, so that they in return can get the job done. Hence, a leader's vision is what pulls the whole thing along. It is what the team struggles for, competes for, fights for and sacrifices for and under the correct leadership. Will successfully attain. Vision thus gives a team a mission, a sense of purpose to get excited about and reason for being charged up, enthused and motivated. Hence, great leaders are driven by a vision, a true sense of mission and purpose. Of course a leader with a vision but without the ability to convey this vision to his followers is similar to a hot balloon without someone to work the controls, the desirable traits are the gears to carry that vision. Gate's ability to see the future labels him as visionary leader.
However, if leadership cannot be learnt as the trait theory suggests, why is so much time, money and effort put in for leadership training? For example, Motorola recently spent 150 million US dollars on leadership education for their staff members (Daft, 1999, p. 89). Or ASB Bank is a leading New Zealand organization that understands the importance of leadership training. One of the first courses undertaken by ASB Bank is employees, who are newly appointed to a management position, is in fact leadership.
Although some people are born with those traits, doesn't necessarily mean that those without can no be leaders. Evidences prove that leadership skills can also be learnt. The theory behind therefore, is that leaders can also be made. By assessing the outstanding leaders, it is clear that everyone has the potential to be a leader. Dent (2000, p. 153) suggests, leaders can be made by hard effort, which is the price that people must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile. The related theory focused on what leaders actually do instead of seeking their inborn traits.
Numerous evidences suggest that leaders develop through an ongoing process. This could be through acquired skills, desire to know more, stepping out of comfort zone and do self-studying. In addition, other results suggest that leadership can also be acquired through hardship, life and work experience.
In The Time (Accessed Jan 19), Nelson Mandela stated, “ I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances”.
It is very clear that the situation of that time in South Africa, made Mandela had to think of what he could do and through hardship and effort; the man changed the history for good. Also, looking at a leader such as Martin Luther King, who was subject to such prejudice and unfairness, he wouldn’t have been the person he was if it hadn’t been for the environment he was in and his upbringing.
Bill Gate, founder of Microsoft and the world's richest man had a vision and followed it till he became a leader. In 1975 he found the company, which completely changed the way people used computer. During his mission, he fought aggressively for a long time to protect the royalties that he could acquire from computer software and as a result, a retail market of computer software was created which exists today. Gates has also is identified to own the world's largest charitable foundations. Throughout his life therefore, Gates proves that leaders can be self made. He was described as workaholic, who worked very hard during his education ate Harvard University and was very ambitious since childhood. He could perform any task on which he applied his mind. At the age of fifteen, he had a mission to become a millionaire at the age of thirty. He always learnt from his past mistakes. Through the evidences, Daniel (1998, p. 110) argues that self-awareness can be a significant source that leads one to leadership. This is the ability to read your own emotions and how you affect others, having a strong sense of who you are, your emotions, strengths, weaknesses, needs and drives. For example, one might recognize that deadlines make him tense and frustrated, so he plans well in order to avoid getting too close to deadlines before finishing a project. Self-regulation is the process of controlling one’s emotional impulses. Motivation is the drive to achieve beyond expectations. Empathy involves considering peoples’ feelings when making decisions. For example, Martha Stewart's life passion for stylish entertaining and living transformed her from the head of a catering business to an amazing entrepreneur. Her media and entertainment company, Martha Stewart Living Omni media Inc., made $11.7 million in net profits in 1999 on revenues of $232 million. She is the editor of Martha Stewart Living magazine with a circulation of 2.3 million. She appears on an hour-long syndicated TV The Early Show seen by 1.6 million people daily, and she is a regular on CBS’s and a frequent guest on The Late Show with David Letterman. The Stewart’s can-do-anything-and-everything attitude demonstrates her passion and precision in action.
Social skills are of importance, hence developing attitude that finds something in common with everyone (Kinsley, 1996, p.115). Emotionally intelligent leaders work well with other people and are effective in leading change (Yukl, 1994, p.70).A key theory to emerge about leadership is Fiedlers Contingency Theory of Leadership (1967, p.128).Here he analyses and explains the apparent link between a leader's leadership style and the situational requirements of the task. He emphasized that the effectiveness of a leadership style is contingent on the overall situation and cannot just be determined by setting the leader's traits or behaviour (Fiedler 196, p. 400).
In addition, Goleman (1998, p. 372) also found that leadership qualities are best leaned by the brain’s limbic system, which governs feelings, impulses, and drives which involve breaking certain bad habit and establishing new ones. Every individual has weaknesses in specific and unique areas. Perhaps the most effective way to learn to be a better leader would involve first getting feedback from others on specific leadership traits, then prompting change in behavioural habits by copying the behaviour of people who possess the desired traits. A key component is the motivation and desire to change, however; someone who doesn’t believe they really need to change isn’t going to put forth the required effort.
Leadership skills commonly identified by experts include intelligence, self-worth, good mental health, the ability to motivate others, vision, integrity. There have been legendary leaders who did not possess one or more of these traits, so it cannot be said that a leader must possess all of them. For example, a person who does not necessarily have the high intelligence he feels he needs to be a leader could simply surround himself with subordinates who do possess that intelligence and still be a fantastic leader, as long as he has other necessary skills.
Education and training can be a significant source of acquired leadership. On the road to be a leader, individual take control of their own development. They seek out training opportunities that will make a difference in their performance. Such individuals look for training programs that will help them develop specific skills that they can use on the job. Then, they when they return to work, they devote specific, deliberate effort to mastering in real life what they learned in the classroom. Jack Welch, before he became the CEO of General Electrics he first got a degree in Chemical engineering from the University of Massachusetts and then PhD at the university of Illinois.
Today also, most of top companies have adapted their own internal leadership training programmes in order to form and impact their company's future leaders. These include Barclays, HSBC banks, British Telecommunication, KPMG, etc. Goldsmith and Morgan studied the progress of 88,000 managers who had been to leadership development training. The people who returned from the training, talked about it, and did deliberate work to apply their learning were judged as becoming more effective leaders. The ones who didn't showed no improvement. In addition, trust has become crucial factor to leadership success in today's world. There are many well educated and motivated people who lack the knowledge of how to lead others so they don’t assume leadership position or if they do they don’t do very well in them. The process of leadership is totally based on trust if other don’t trust you they will not follow you in every instance and they will decide in each situation whether to trust you or not so to develop trust in other people a person can learn with the change of time that the person can not learn by birth only.
The issue whether all managers can go on to be a leader, the answer is NO.
Warren Bennis states "Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing." (Bennis,1997, p. 219). Similarly, a proverb says that leadership is doing the right thing; management is doing things right. The difference between the two is not as sharp as the saying would suggest, and both are required for effective corporate growth: leadership risk creates opportunities while management strictness turns them into tangible results.
Even though some people treat manager and leader as synonyms, but they should be distinguished. To become a better leader and survive in the twenty-first century, the first task is to differentiate between manager and leader. According to the chart of distinctions from Bennis & Goldsmith (2003.p7), basically the manager is an administrator and maintains the tasks of the company, accepts reality, focuses on systems and structure, relies on control, manager has a short-range view and his/her eye always on the bottom line. The role of leader is more exclusive, a leader is an innovator and develops the tasks of the company, investigates reality, focuses on people, inspires trust, leader has a long-range perspective and his/her eye on the horizon. (Durbrin et al. 2006,p5) state, “A leader creates a vision to direct the organization. In contrast, the key function of the manager is to implement the vision.” “To state it succinctly: A good manager does things right. A leader does the right things” (Bennis & Goldsmith 2003, p.7).
Paramount to effective leadership is the ability to influence other people (Bateman & Snell, 2002). Leaders establish the strategic direction, vision, mission and goals of the organization and management provides the infrastructure to carry out the leadership plan. At the same time leaders inspire management. Leaders oversee strategically while managers man the battlefield. Managers focus on the ongoing daily activities and supervision of directed activities while leaders continue to move organizations forward. Put another way, managers make sure tasks and projects are completed while leaders plan what tasks and projects will be done. These responsibilities belong to both leadership and management often overlapping each other. Good leaders will keep the lines of communication open with management for input as leadership continues to plan and implement an organization’s strategic vision and direction. Twenty-first century leadership requires organizations to expand globally requiring leaders to develop cultures that promote global perspectives, human diversity, and ethics. Managers typically will follow leadership direction and carry out the plan.A manager is someone who knows all the people who are concerned with running departments, as well as, maximizing profits through responsiveness to customers and searching for ways to improve areas of the firm. So it seems that a manager wants a company to achieve the largest possible turnover, I feel a good manager could never accept that his company is running at 100%. We also see that control is also a characteristic of a manager. This form of control is achieved through the position that a manager holds. Management may be defined as ‘getting things done through people’. Control over the workers is very important because the manager’s future is dependent on the performance of others. Managers are assessed on the basis of the results that they achieve which are seen clearly by their superiors, peers and subordinates as making a contribution to the company’s goal.
Moreover, it is clear that there are differences between a leader and a manager. A manager will focus on systems and structures that have been established by the traditions of an organization. Managers have control over workers due to their position, they can punish and reward. A manager is judged on ‘hard figures’, therefore a manager will focus on the short-term profit. A manager will have risen through the ranks of the company, as a result the manager will know the company inside out. However a manager will also be a copy of the previous managers so they do not risk the status quo and the running of the company. A leader to this reference, motivate people to perform tasks, even though they do not have the power of a manager. Instead a group will follow because a leader has a vision, which inspires them. Leaders can introduce original ideas and challenge old ones because they have not been brought up in the company structure. They can look at where the company should be in the future because they are not judged on short-term profits. For these reasons therefore, its not automatic that all managers can go on to be leader unless they are born or have got a vision.
In conclusion, it may be that people are born with certain predispositions i.e. personality characteristics, which make them more effective as leaders, or in exhibiting leadership qualities. There are certain factors that are indisputably innate, such as family, genetics etc, however there are factors that are controversial such as intelligence, personality and status. These factors are arguably influenced by environmental and situational factors. In comparison, there are influential factors that are not innate, i.e., social influences, life-experiences, education, mentors etc. it appears that there is a genetic component to leadership, but leadership qualities can be learned, as well. For example, one person might be born with more intelligence or dominance than another, but a person can train himself or herself to learn these qualities. Certainly, some qualities of a good leader that have been identified by many theorists and consultants are not innate, but rather must be learned. Integrity is one of these. Human beings are not born with an innate sense of honesty; observing young children tells us as much. Consider a child of three or four who breaks a dish. His reaction is not to immediately report what he has done, but to hide the evidence and claim later that he had nothing to do with the dish being broken. We must learn as we grow and develop what integrity is. It is the same for a number of other leadership traits that can be learned. Judging by my research, the trait theory and situational theory of leadership are perhaps the most appropriate. There definitely are specific traits that a leader must have; many of these have already been identified. Those traits, however, differ depending upon the situation and the people who are being led. If leadership has been won by strength of personality alone, then should a lack of ability be exposed, future decisions may be opposed or obstructed, as followers will question their judgement and also their leadership. Conversely, leadership based solely upon technique will suffer if the leader’s personality causes friction within the organisation. In this instance decisions may be opposed for political reasons and inefficiency may arise due to low morale.
REFERENCES
Books
Bateman & Snell (2002). Management: The New Competitive Landscape. New York: McGraw.
Bennis, W & Goldsmith, J (1997). Learning to Lead : A Workbook on Becoming a Leader, Paperback, Addison- Wesley Pub Co.
Bennis, W & Goldsmith, J (1997). Learning to Lead: On Becoming a Leader(3rd edition), New York: Basic Book.
Daft, R. L. (1999). Leadership: Theory and Pratice. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace College Publishers.
Dubrin A.J. , Dalglish C. & Miller A.V. 2006, Leadership, 2nd Asia-Pacific Edition, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.
Fiedle, Fred E. (1967), A theory of leadership effectiveness, Mc Graw- Hill, New York. Kotter, J. P. (1988), The Leadership Factor, Free Press New York.
Maxwell, J.G(1993). Developing the leader within you. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Mullins, L. J(1996) ‘The Nature of Leadership’ notes taken from Management and Organizational Behavior, Pitman Publish, London.
Yukl, G (1994), Leadership in Organizations, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall
Journals
Stogdill, R.M.(1984), ‘Personal Factors Associated with Leadership: A Survey of the Literature’, Journal of Psychology.
Bass, Bernard M.(1990), leadership: theory, research, and managerial applications.
Wall Street Journal(1986), The Corporate Woman: A Special report.
Adair, John(1983), Effective Leadership.
Gleman, D. (1998) What makes a leader? Harvard Business Review.
Website
Knisely, J.S. (1996). Leaders: born or made? Training programs called into question.
Retrieved January 25,2008 from:
