Leadership Traits, Behavior, and Styles - Essay Sample

Leadership is defined as a mechanism by which an individual affects everyone else to achieve a purpose and guides the organization and makes it cohesive and coherent. It is also the ability to build trust and commitment between individuals and build an urge to succeed. To achieve organizational objectives, it encourages respect and cooperation between team members. In modern times, especially in a competitive business environment, success cannot be guaranteed without good leadership. Different leaders have different leadership traits that help them lead a successful company or organization. Successful leaders' common traits are; hard work, honesty, courage, integrity, and inspiration. Since the beginning of time, tales and theories have been told and written about many great leaders. This paper will describe leadership traits, behavior, and styles.

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Management and leadership are different. A good manager can be a lousy leader, and a bad manager can be an excellent leader. One of the most notable styles a good leader can have is participative or democratic and delegate. He can be autocratic and bureaucratic whenever he chooses. He always encourages his employees to take part in the decision-making process, and when the employees cannot come up with the right decision, only then will he decide on behalf of the company. A leader is always there with his team to encourage them to have the courage and be independent when he leaves the decision making to them; this is a way of mentoring them to become leaders in the future.

Doing the same thing over and over again yields the same results. For change to occur, autocracy is required. A leader must be willing and able to make a bold and unpopular decision. He must inspire his team to work towards specific objectives that sometimes may sound impossible to achieve. Whenever there is an employee who is opposed to change or reluctant to work towards the company's objective, a leader has to let the employee go nicely to ensure that the rest of the team is not affected by others who are resistant towards change. A good leader encourages his employees to participate in decision-making and trusts them to carry out actions well independently. He delegates some responsibility to his employees, but this comes with consequences for any employee that fails to perform accordingly. He should also be tolerant because a failure in one field can be offset with success in another organization's field.

Aggressive leadership style must be used when the company continually fails to meet set objectives. For example, Sergio Marchionne, a well-known former CEO of Chrysler, was brought to fix the company on its death bed even after receiving a bail-out from the government. Sergio was known for his 'no nonsense' attitude and commitment to his job. He took a more aggressive approach than his predecessor; the first thing he did was incompetent fire managers. Sergio then came up with a new business plan for the company with his employees, which turned the company's fortunes tremendously. Chrysler Company went from making losses of $1 billion in 2009 to an increase of 23% in sales, and total sales in 2011 hit $55 billion (Mumbo, 2017). It is an excellent example of a leader who effectively uses an aggressive style to make the organization successful. He got rid of the low performing employees, and he set the standards so every employee knows if he performs below the required standards, he would be fired. On the other hand, workers who work had can appreciate this leadership style because they know that the company gets more robust when they work hard, and their jobs become more secure.

A person in leadership should have a vision for the future; with this trait, a leader can persuade employees to work hard as they will be inspired working under a leader who has a strong vision for the future. When an organization has a vision or goal, it is an influential tool for strengthening its directors' leadership. With the help of the employees who are critical factors in achieving the organization's vision, leaders ought to pay attention to a situation that can affect the goals and vision of an organization. An effective leader should develop different or new ideas that can be useful in achieving the organization's vision. Today, when choosing leaders in any field, leadership traits are becoming a key factor to be considered.

In conclusion, we now know what it takes to be a good leader, and anyone can be a good leader. It takes practice and experience, both good and bad, and if a person can learn from experiences, he/she can become an effective leader. The key to becoming a good leader is getting to know and respect his employees. Thus, a leader will have to have a good relationship with his employees to gain respect and loyalty, whether through democratic, innovative, or coaching styles.

Reference

Ivypanda. (2018, May 28). Leadership traits - 962 Words: Essay Example. Free Essays. https://ivypanda.com/essays/leadership-traits

Mumbo, D. (2020, June 5). Leadership Traits, Behaviors, and Styles. Free Essay Example. StudyMoose. https://studymoose.com/leadership-traits-behaviors-and-styles-essay

Tanuja, A. (2018, November 27). Essay on Leadership. Essays, Research Papers, and Articles on Business Management. https://www.businessmanagementideas.com/essays/leadership-essays/essay-on-leadership/5169