An effective leader is an individual who guides a community or group. Bill Gates is one of the greatest leaders in the world who exemplify most of the qualities of an effective leader. Lead one of the most successful companies in the world, despite hardships but he had to over come and he showed that he was not pushover through out competitors. Finally, he ended up helping other people by setting up several charity foundations to relieve people especially children in different countries who need helps.
An effective leader is an individual who earns the respect from other people, attract more people who follow his/her rule, and is tolerant of people who do not share the same beliefs as him/her. Chairman Mao got respects from his followers by means of charm. He also was accepting of people who did not follow him. He helped liberated China that was in a complexity and created a new government system with others who have different opinions. He exemplifies these factors and merited for his advances and accomplishments. An effective leader should aware that whatever he does is affective and it affects everyone. In business world, the same concepts will apply to business leaders as well.
The difference between effective leaders and less effective leaders is their motives and needs. In addition, effective leaders motivated by four specific leadership motives or needs, which are power motive, drive and achievement motive, strong work ethic and tenacity (Dubrin et al. 2006, p.39).
Effective leaders are highly interested in control resources. Leaders with high power motives are interested in influence others. They behave to exert their power, spend much their time on changing the behavior and thinking of others, and care about the relationship with those around them. In addition, there are two kinds of power motives, one personalized power motive, and the other socialized power motive. Leaders with a personalized power motive use power mostly for their own interest. However, leaders with a socialized power motive seek power to achieve organization goals (Dubrin et al. 2006, p.40).
Effective leaders tend to invest high energy into achieving goals and persist in employing that energy, which is a strong motivation, drive and achievement motivation. Effective leaders will find joy in the accomplishment of the work goals.
Leaders with a strong work ethic have a firm belief in the dignity of work. Effective leaders value hard work and believe that the group work is worthwhile (Dubrin et al. 2006, p.41).
The final motivational characteristic of organizational leaders is tenacity. The leaders with strong tenacity are better at overcoming difficulties and they have a strongly developed sense of purpose and a firm determination to achieve their goals (Dubrin et al. 2006, p.42).
It is important to note that leadership is not consisting with one particular ingredient. Rather, Bennis (2003, p.31) identified “six ingredients of leadership that good leaders all seem to share some, the ingredients are listed and explained below.
Guiding vision, which indicates leader should have a clear idea of what he/she wants to do in professional and personal ways (Bennis 2003, p.31).
Passion, which focuses on the ultimate passion for the promises of life, combined with a very particular passion for a vocation, a profession and a course of action. The leader loves what he or she does and loves doing things. The leader who linked with passion gives hope and inspiration to other people. (Bennis 2003, p.32).
Integrity, which combined with three essential parts of integrity: self-knowledge, candor, and maturity. Self-knowledge is still the most difficulties faced by people, but until the real leaders know their own strengths and weaknesses, knows what to do, why they have to do that. Leaders never lie to themselves, especially know their erroneous understanding and assets and deal with them directly. Candor is the key to self-knowledge; it shows ideas and actions in honesty. Maturity is important to a leader because leading is not simply showing the way or issuing orders. After experiencing, growth leaders learned how to be dedicated, observant and capable of working together from others. Never servile, always truthful. Having located these qualities in themselves, leaders can encourage them in others (Bennis 2003, p.32).
Trust, which is much more like a product and it is not as much an ingredient of leadership. It is one quality that can be acquired, but it has to be earned. It is given by co-workers and followers, and without it, the leader cannot function (Bennis 2003, p.33).
Curiosity, which describes leaders wonder about everything, wants to learn as much as they could (Bennis 2003, p.33).
Daring, which describes leader wishes to take risks, experiment, try to do new things, they do not worry about failure, but embrace errors, because they will learn from those failures (Bennis 2003, p.33).
Dubrin et al. (2006, p.29) have identified that successful leadership is contributed by nine general personality traits which are covered other aspects rather than Bennis, these traits are self-confidence, trustworthiness, extroversion, and high tolerance for frustration, warmth, sense of humor, assertiveness, emotional stability, and enthusiasm. For a better understanding of those aspects, they are explained as below.
Self-confidence is the behavior a person exhibitions in a number of circumstances. Self-confident person can deal with crisis calmly, and solve problem and make reasonable decision in an urgent situation. In addition, this personality of leader can positively influence the group (Dubrin et al. 2006, p.29).
Trustworthiness is very important in the cooperation among the group members. Leaders must be worth trusting, and they must trust their group members. However, gaining and maintaining trust is a substantial challenge (Dubrin et al. 2006, p.29).
Extroversion is necessary for leaders in some situations. For example, leaders need to be gregarious and outgoing to participate in group activities.
High tolerance for frustration is necessary for the successful leaders, because a leader will encounter a great many frustrations, and they need this ability to deal with the blocking of goal attainment (Dubrin et al. 2006, p.29).
Being a warm person is an important part in leadership effectiveness, because it helps leader build good relationship with group members and provide emotional support to group members (Dubrin et al. 2006, p.34).
The effective use of humor is a critical part of the leader’s role. The reasons are that laughter and humor can relieve tension and boredom, and defuse hostility in the workplace, keeping a harmonious atmosphere. Moreover, being humor to dissolve tension and defuse conflict helps leader exert power over the group (Dubrin et al. 2006, p.33).
Assertive leaders will not hesitate to express their demands, opinions, feelings and attitudes. Therefore, assertiveness can be a motive, force to the group members, and help leaders perform many tasks and achieve goals (Dubrin et al. 2006, p.30).
Emotional stability is critical to the stable performance of the group. Because this trait refers to whether leaders are able to control their emotion to the point that others can feel consistent in the way they are treated. Low emotional stability such as anxiety, depression, anger and embarrassment will affect the motion of group members and then their working effectiveness and performance (Dubrin et al. 2006, p.32).
Enthusiasm is desirable for the leader, because it will be regarded as a reward for constructive behavior. In addition, enthusiasm can help build a good relationship with group members (Dubrin et al. 2006, p.33).
W. Clement Stone says, “There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative” (Maxwell 2001, p.141). Besides above-mentioned characteristics, a good leader needs to have positive attitudes as well. Some of these are obvious, such as that, they care about what people are doing and always think about their followers before themselves. In addition, another attitude of a good leader is that they always keep promises they make. Some of the subtle attributes of a good leader are that they do not hide behind bad news. Moreover, they are easy people to talk. The best leader would be one that enjoys being the leader and is always at the right place when people need him or her, sets tangible milestones, always believes that they can do everything, which is optimistic, gets everyone involved and wants everyone to be successful.
Good leaders are made, not born usually self-made. If someone wish and have confidence, he/she can become a good leader. Effective leaders developed through a continuous process of self-study, education, training and experience. Leader is not necessarily issue instructions, procedures, goals, and monitors the working process, but they have to ensure that the group has the assets it needs and make sure there are no obstacles or restrictions appear during the process of achieving goals (Thompson et al. 2001, p.8).
In conclusion, leading is not about controlling, directing, prodding and manipulating anymore, although it used to be a true statement, but the shift from the traditional to new generation and the change in times means that it is no longer necessary and does not work. It is only a useful myth in the sense that people can learn from it, they must learn to balance their leadership skills. All these factors mentioned above describe the better leader should have in the world. However, no one is perfect and therefore cannot have all those qualities but if most of those characteristics or even just a few of them apply, a better business leader will come out. However, “There is no secret recipe or magical formula to become an effective leader overnight. It is a process of trial and error, successes and failures” (DeKlein & Penstone 1994).
References:
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Dubrin A.J. , Dalglish C. & Miller A.V. 2006, Leadership, 2nd Asia-Pacific Edition, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.
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Chan, K.W. & Maubourgne, R.A. 1992, ‘Parables of Leadership’, Harvard Business Review, July – August
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Gary L. 2005, ‘The Work of a Modern Leader’, Becoming an effective leader, Harvard Business School Press, Boston
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Bennis W. & Goldsmith J. 2003, Learning to lead: on becoming a leader, 3rd Edition, Basic Books, New York
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Bennis W. 2003, On becoming a leader, Revised Edition, Basic Books, New York
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Endrissat, N., Mueller, W.R., & Meissner, J. 2005, What is the meaning of leadership? , Basel University, Basel, viewed 10 September 2006 <http://www.wwz.unibas.ch/ofp/publikationen/online/NE/the_meaning_of_leadership_online.pdf>
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Maxwell J.C. 2001, The Power of Attitude, Cook Communications Ministries, Colorado
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Daft, R L, 2002, The Leadership Experience, Ohio, South-Western
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Thompson L.L., Swenson C. & Robbins S.P. 2001 Tools for Teams: Building Effective Teams in the Workplace, Pearson Custom Publishing, Boston
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DeKlein K. & Penstone M. 1994, How You Can Be An Effective Leader, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Canada ,viewed 20 September 2006 <http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/rural/facts/94-081.htm#What%20Makes%20A%20Leader >
