2.1.3 Ability to be Tolerant and to Remain Calm
One of the most important attributes of a leader is the ability to be very tolerant and to be able to remain very calm. A typically efficient leader would be one that is very tolerant when there is ambiguity present and has the ability to remain calm in very tricky and challenging situations. A calm leader would be one that would remain very composed and steadfast in relation to the main purpose even though there might e chaos all around. This is important for a leader and a shaky leader that is unable to be calm and panics during a bad situation would be one that would also generate panic among his or her followers and hence leading to a situation of chaos. Hence, during situations of storms, unpredictable emotions, and also crises, good leaders will remain calm and would enter the chaotic situation with a cool head and with the aim of sorting the matter out in the most logical manner possible (Characteristics and Qualities of Good Leaders, 2010) and (Lord and Maher, 1993).
2.1.5 Ability to Think and Act Intelligently and Analytically
This will be perhaps one of the more important qualities of a good leader, which is the ability of the leader to act and think intelligently and analytically. Good leaders are ones that are very intelligent and are able to use their intelligence for the betterment of the followers and a good leader will be one that is able to ensure that the main goal would be within focus and able to think in a very analytically way. A good leader would typically have the mental capacity to view a situation in its entirety and more importantly, he or she will be able to break the situation sub parts for the purposes of closer analysis and to derive an effective solution to the problem being encountered (Characteristics and Qualities of Good Leaders, 2010) and (Awamleh and Gardner, 1999).
2.2 Elaborating Upon Qualities of Good Bosses
2.2.1 Ability of Provide a Clear Direction for the Organisation and Its Members
The first quality of a good boss is that the boss has to be capable of proving a very clear direction for the organisation and its staff. Essentially, the boss has to ensure that his or her organisation and its members are headed in the right direction and that they have knowledge of kind of strategic direction that the organisation is to take and what is expected of them. A boss like this would be one that has to establish very clear goals and standards for the people in the organisation and it is very important for the boss to be able to communicate group goals and not merely individual goals. In essence, the boss must have such a quality that would make him much more involved in the process of goal setting and not just dictate them himself without communicating to the entire organisation. A good boss will be one that is said to be clear and very thorough when it comes to the delegation of responsibility (Find Articles - Qualities of Good Bosses, 2010).
2.2.2 Ability to Ensure Direct, Open and Comprehensive Communication Across the Organisation
The next important quality of a good boss will be to motivate and encourage open communication within the organisation. Practically speaking, the boss has to ensure that all important communication channels in the organisation are open and important information is capable of flowing freely. Communication is a very important instrument that is vital for any organisation and it is used to ensure that important organsational practices and operations go as planned and that the errors and problems are minimized as all persons have the information they need to carry out their respective duties. Hence, it is empirically vital for a boss to be able to ensure that there is high quality communication The boss needs to be very candid when it comes to dealing with people and he or she must also be very honest and very straight to the point. It is the case that staff would like to get important information for the boss and the correct communication strategy would not only ensure that straight information can be obtained from their bosses but there would also be a construction of a climate of trust and openness (Find Articles - Qualities of Good Bosses, 2010).
2.2.3 Ability to Offer Help, Mentoring and Support by the Boss
The next good quality of the boss is their ability to be helpful and very willing to mentor, coach and to provide very important support to people in the organisation that need it the most. What this would relate to here is the ability of the boss to be very helpful to others, the ability of the boss to working very constructively for the purposes of correcting various kinds of performance issues and problems and also standing up for the people in the organisation in the form of giving them moral support and counseling them along the way (Find Articles - Qualities of Good Bosses, 2010).
Through extending their help to the people of the organisation, the bosses would be carving a good name for himself or herself in the eyes of the people in the organisation and this would have the impact or effect of getting these people to support the boss in turn sometime in the future where the boss is the person that might need to support. In addition to this, providing help and support to staff can act as a motivational tool that ensures the staff give the organsation their 100% effort. Also, the boss would also be appreciated where he or she will be able to act as a mentor and to guide the people to much more effective organsational performance via the development of skills, talents and capabilities as the boss is able to help these people acquire.
2.2.4 Ability to Provide Objective Recognition
The 4th quality of a good boss, which by no means is the learnt important quality is the ability of the boss to be able to provide the people of the organisation with a satisfactory level of objective recognition. What this means is that the boss has to make sure that he or she is able to identify and recognize the people that are able to give good performance in the organisation and to given them credit for their good performance where it is due. This is what the boss has to do as opposed to criticizing the people for the perceived lack of performance or other problems that occur in the organisation. Bosses must be able to rewards fairly and have to be connected to the ability of the staff to deliver excellence in terms of their job performance and not to reward based on seniority or even the existence of personal relationships (Find Articles - Qualities of Good Bosses, 2010). What is trying to be said here is that it will be important for bosses to be equal and impartial as well as generous when it comes to rewarding employees for their performance as this kind of rewards can be very effective when it comes to motivating employees to bring about good organisational performance and effectiveness.
Ability to Encourage Innovation and Generation of New Idea
The final good quality of a good and competent boss is the ability of the boss to encourage innovation and the promulgation of new ideas. This quality is very important for any boss that intends to lead his or her organisation towards success and profitability. Innovation is very important here because it will help the organisation to progress further. By having a creative and innovative workforce, the organisation will always be ahead of other organisations and will be able to progress well (Find Articles - Qualities of Good Bosses, 2010) and (House et al., 2004).
3.0 Explanation of Leadership Theory Type Related to My Very Own Experience in Working With a Leader
3.1 Transformational Leadership Theory
Not a very long time ago, I has worked for a consultancy firm that provided consultancy on various business related strategies and issues. The leader of the firm, who was the CEO, was a very pleasant and humble man, to say the least. He was willing to adapt to situations as needed, he was willing to dedicate time and resources for the improvement of the organisation and above all, he exhibited a type of leadership style that was indeed deemed to be highly appropriate for the kind of organisation that he was running. Such an organisation was one that underwent constant change and hence the leadership style also was one that was to be of a kind which enabled fast reaction and transformation to make way for changes needed by the organisation. This leader that I worked very closely with was a leader that has used a number of leadership theories in order to lead the organisation and more often than not, he used a combination of leadership theories. However, the most relevant theory that was used by this leader and which is one that will be talked about is the transformational leadership theory (Van Wagner K, 2010)
In essence, this leader managed to gain control over a certain potentially problematic situation through conveying very clear and precise vision of thee objectives of the group and made the group feel very energized and could literally transform a situation of helplessness and hopelessness to a situation of promise and fulfillment.
3.2 Origins of Transformational Leadership Theory
This concept of leadership was has been brought to life by James MacGregor Burns and what Burns advances here is that transformational leadership is a species of leadership in which leaders as well as followers assists one another to advance to a much stronger and higher level in relation to moral and motivation (Burns, 1978). Via the strength of vision and personality, it is a fact here that transformational leaders would be capable of inspiring its followers to alter their expectations, their various perceptions and also motivations to work so they are directed towards common goals (Van Wagner K, 2010) and (Kenney et al, 1996).
From a practical point of view, the transformational style of leadership would be a kind of leadership style which will ultimately lead to very positive changes in the individuals that adhere to this style of leadership. Under normal circumstances, transformational leaders would be typically very energetic, highly enthusiastic and also very passionate. Leaders like these are essentially very concerned and very involved within the process and they tend also to be very focused when it comes to assisting all organisational members to achieve success (Van Wagner K, 2010) and (Burns, 1978).
The research that was done by Burns in relation to this theory of leadership was expanded by Bass and he made the theory in such a way that it became known as Bass’ Transformational Leadership Theory. What Bass discussed here is that transformational leadership is described on the basis of the impact which it has on followers. According to the logic and theory as propounded by Bass is that transformational leaders are ones that are capable of garnering trust, respect as well as admiration from the followers (Burns, 1978) and (Bass, 1985).
3.3 The Main Components of Transformational Leadership
In accordance with what Bass states, there area mainly four different components in relation to transformational leadership and these components are discussed.
The first component to be discussed is the intellectual stimulation component and transformational leaders like the CEO at the consultancy organisation that I worked at are very capable of challenging the status quo as well as being able to encourage and motivate creativity between followers. What the leader encourages here is the exploration of brand new methods of doing things and also new opportunities to learn (Van Wagner K, 2010) and (Epitropaki and Martin, 2004).
The second element here is individualized consideration and the transformational leadership that my CEO adhered to also involved the offering of support and also encouragement in regards to individual followers. For the purposes of foster and perpetuating supportive relationships, it is a fact here that transformational leaders like this one are able to keep lines of communication wide open for followers to be able to share various ideas for leaders to be able to proper direct recognition for all the special contributions provided by members of the organisation (Van Wagner K, 2010)
The third component of this kind of leadership is inspirational motivation and transformational leaders are ones that have very clear visions and are capable of articulating it to followers. Such leaders will be capable of assisting followers to be able to experience the identical kind of passion and motivation so that they will be able to fulfill these goals (Van Wagner K, 2010) and (Epitropaki and Martin, 2004).
The final component of this kind of leadership style is idealized influence and it is a fact here that transformational leaders like this would, more often than not, serves as a role model for his or her followers and due to the reason that followers in the organisation tend to trust and show great respect for the leader, they would emulate the leader and they would also tend to internalize his or her ideals (Van Wagner K, 2010)
4.0 Evaluation of Qualities that Make Good Leader and Contribute to its Success
There are many important qualities of good leaders that have led many past and present day leaders to great success and achievements and here, the discussion is on the success factors that lead to the success of Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor company. For a company as complicated, complex and large as Ford, there is clearly a need for effective leadership even from before and here the success factors that, in my opinion, led to the success of Henry Ford are now discussed. For examining literature on Henry Ford, his management style and character, there are a number of success factors that can be clearly attributable to his success in the early days of the company and these are discussed here.
It is quite obvious than Henry Ford did have a very clear vision of what he was going to achieve and a very vivid picture of which direction that Ford was to go and most, of all, he did have an idea of what success was like and the way that it was going to be achieved. Having a vision was one thing, sharing it was another and this was yet another very important success factor relating to the vision of Henry Ford. He was known to not only share his vision but to act on it as well looks like and how to achieve it. It has been said that good business leaders are ones that are able to create a vision, they are able to articulate the vision, they are able to own it very passionately and they are able to drive it quite relentlessly to completion.
The next success factor of Henry Ford was that, like most successful leaders, he was not only able to have a good vision but he was also able to communicate his vision that made other members of Ford to adhere to it religiously. He was known to communicate very clearly and also very passionately, knowing fully well that such kind of passion within the organisation is very contagious (HR World -Leadership Qualities, 2010).
Henry Ford was also a leader that was very disciplined and he was successful because he was able to work his vision very single-mindedly and to direct his actions as well as the actions of the toward the main objective or goal of the organisation. In essence, action can be defined as the hallmark of a successful leader and Henry Ford was a person that took action very well and in great interest of the organisation (Bryman, 1987).
The next success factor of a leader like Ford is integrity and this is the merger of outward actions together with inner values. In essence, a person like Ford, that is of high internal and external integrity would be one that will be very trusted as he is a leader that is unlikely to deter away from inner values. He trusted his followers and in turn, his followers trusted him. Due to this integrity, the followers found him to be very reliable and approachable.
Ford was a very dedicated person and this was another one of this leaders success factors at the company and he was known top devote all the time and energy that he had when it came to accomplishing a certain task. He was even able to inspire a great amount of dedication by carrying out what it takes in order to complete a certain task in order to reach the vision of the organisation. Through setting a very good example, Ford demonstrated to his followers that success was very achievable and that they had to take the opportunities to be able to achieve great things at the organisation (Bryman, 1987).
The following success factor here is magnanimity and this is where good leaders like for give credit to the people that deserve it. What the magnanimous leader would ensure here is that the credit for the successes are is spread out very widely all around the organisation. This was something that Ford was good at doing and through the display of such leadership qualities, he managed to keep the staff happy and increased the success of the organisation in relation to its performance and profitability (HR World -Leadership Qualities, 2010).
Being the leader of a large car manufacturer, Ford was a person who was capable of displaying great openness in that he was very open when it comes to listening to new ideas and this is even though it might not necessarily be in conformance with normal ways of thinking. This is also one of the success factors of leaders like Ford or even most recently, Charles Ghosn of Nissan. Successful leaders are ones that are able to suspend their judgment as to listen to the ideas of others and to be open in accepting new methods of performing activities that have been performed before. The concept of openness would build mutual respect as well as trust between the organisational leaders and the followers and most of all, it is capable of keeping teams in the organisation properly supplied with brand new ideas which are capable of furthering the vision of the organisation (HR World -Leadership Qualities, 2010).
5.0 Conclusion
The qualities of leaders and bosses that were described in this report are some of the most important qualities that have to be present in leaders and bosses that are intending to be successful in the organisation that they are leading. These qualities have been pointed out here and discussed at length. Next, the type of leadership style that I found to be closest to the style of leadership that was demonstrated by a leader that I had worked with once before was discussed also and the type of leadership style was transformational leadership style. This type of leadership was talked about here and analyzed and its history and most important components were also discussed in depth. Then, the success factors of great leaders like Hendy Ford were pointed out here and these are some of the main success factors that have made great leaders and continue to make great leaders in organisations all around the world.
6.0 References
Characteristics and Qualities of Good Leaders, 2009 : available at:
retrieved on: 1-1-2010
HR World -Leadership Qualities, 2010: available at:
retrieved on: 1-1-2010
Van Wagner K, 2010: available at:
retrieved on: 1-1-2010
Riggio, R.E. (2009, March 24). Are you a transformational leader. Psychology Today. : available at:
retrieved on: 1-1-2010
Find Articles - Qualities of Good Bosses, 2009
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Burns, J.M. (1978). Leadership. N.Y: Harper and Raw.
Bass,B. M,(1985). Leadership and Performance. N. Y,: Free Press.
Awamleh, R., Gardner, W.L. (1999), "Perceptions of leader charisma and effectiveness: the effects of vision content, delivery, and organizational performance", Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 10 pp.345-73.
Bryman, A. (1987), "The generalizability of implicit leadership theories", Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 127 pp.129-41.
Epitropaki, O., Martin, R. (2004), "Implicit leadership theories in applied settings: factor structure, generalizability, and stability over time", Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 89 pp.293-310.
House, R.J., Hanges, P.J., Javidan, M., Dorfman, P.W., Gupta, V. (2004), Culture, Leadership, and Organizations the GLOBE Study of 62 Societies, Sage, London, .
Kenney, R.A., Schwartz-Kenney, B.M., Blascovich, J. (1996), "Implicit leadership theories: defining leaders described as worthy of influence", Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 22 pp.1128-43.
Lord, R.G., Maher, K.J. (1993), Leadership and Information Processing, Routledge, London, .