Understanding the Desirable Traits and Characteristics of Effective Leadership - Essay Example

Understanding the Desirable Traits and Characteristics of Effective leadership I. Introduction Good leaders have distinctive traits and characteristics that make then standout in the crowd and inspire people to follow them. As Bailey (1997) puts it, a leader is like a conductor of an orchestra. When he or she raises his/her baton, a group of musicians follow and create beautiful music together. However, just because a leader can inspire people to follow him/her that do not mean that he or she is an effective leader. According to Bailey (1997), if the conductor does not know how to wield his or her baton to direct his or her members, the orchestra will not be able to produce that desirable sound and everything will fall apart with a blink of an eye. To be effective, a leader must possess certain characteristics that can bring people together and harness the potentials of these people to execute an activity of series of activities successfully. If the leader does not know how to set his or her organization in the right direction, the organization will not be productive and when an organization is not productive, its people will eventually leave (Blanchard et al 2005). A misguided organization may not even survive in a very competitive environment thus, it is very important for a leader to know how to direct its people and stay in the right course. In today’s business environment, every organization needs the right kind of leader to stay alive and productive in a highly competitive environment. Understanding the nature of leadership by identifying the desirable traits of effective leaders is very important. For the purpose of this essay, we will evaluate the different successful leaders in our modern times to identify the characteristics that made them effective leaders in their fields. To go about these tasks, we will take a look at the work of Jack Welch of General Electric Inc, Steve Jobs of Apple Inc and Bill Gates of Microsoft. General Electric Inc is one of the top companies worldwide and its journey towards the top has been the lifework of its former Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Jack Welch. On the other hand, Apple Inc and Microsoft have both revolutionized the world of computers and gadgets in the past decades. II. Defining Leadership and The Winning Team In order for a company to move forward and in the right direction, it needs to attract the right kind of leaders to run its affairs. According to Drucker (1967), characteristics of leaders may differ but they always get the right things done and in doing their jobs, these people also utilize their time effectively, organize their tasks according to priorities, focus on the contribution of others and make effective decisions. Barrick et al (2001) on the other hand said that good leaders often follow the five factor models of personality which are (a) emotional stability (b) extraversion, (c) agreeableness, (d) conscientiousness and (e) openness to new ideas and experiences. Zaccaro et al (2003) on the other hand said that a good leader must have (a) cognitive abilities, (b) extroversion, (c) conscientiousness, (d) emotional stability, (e) openness, (d) agreeableness, (e) motivation, (f) social intelligence, (g) self-monitoring, (h) emotional intelligence and (i) problem solving abilities. On the other hand, Stogdill (1974) sees an effective leader as someone who is (a) achievement driven, (b) persistent, (c) insightful, (d) self-confident, (e) responsible, (f) cooperative, (g) tolerant, (h) influential, and (i) sociable. Of the many varying desirable traits and characteristics of effective leadership, we cannot really pinpoint a single group of characteristics that can describe the perfect leader. Different leaders have varying styles of leadership but for purposes of building a winning team (Burns, 1978; Blanchard, 2005). Moreover, according to Burns (1978), leadership is not just about giving orders to subordinates or employees but it is more of bringing out the best out from the subordinates and harnessing potentials for success. Burns believe that effective leader brings out the best out of his or her employees by making the employees feel that they are part of the company’s success and failures. Letting the employees feel that they have a stake over the company will help them strive harder to give their best for the company (Bass, B. 1995). Different types of leadership traits can be attributed to different theories of leadership. For instance, a transformational leader inspires his or her followers and make the followers feel that they are needed and that their contributions to the company are recognized and valued (Harvey, 2001). Moreover, for the transformational leader to be effective at leading and inspiring his or her subordinates, he or she must exude a certain degree of charisma (Bass, 1985; Harvey, 2001). A good example of effective charismatic leader is Steve Jobs. For many years, Steve Jobs has become like a cult in the computer industry and highly skilled people fall all over themselves to work for Jobs. On the other hand, Bill Gates has become an iconic figure in the computer industry and almost every geek and computer buff around the world wants to be Bill Gates and would jump at the first chance to be part of Gate’s huge computer empire. Why do Bill Gates and Steve Jobs attract so much following especially among the younger generation? There are many possible answers why people tend to gravitate towards these people and one of that is because these people have proven to the world that they can lead and they can create something out of nothing. Charismatic leaders tend to attract the right kind of people and they tend to command loyalty from the people who work for them (Harvey, 2001). The employees of Apple Inc and Microsoft believe in their leaders so they tend to stick with the company and work hard to be part of it even when the going gets tough. The leadership styles and the personalities of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have a lot in common. If we talk about personalities, both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are creative people who know what they want out of life. Both these men dropped out of college to start their own companies and both started working on their companies from scratch in a time when computer technologies were still in their infancy. Now, dropping out of college is not exactly what we may call a good leadership trait but what really make these two college drop-outs very special is that they both knew what they wanted early on and they were not afraid to go out there and fulfill their dreams. They were not afraid to venture into the unknown and take a lot of risk. In the case of Bill Gates, he did not want to be confined to the classroom and learn second hand information from his teachers about computers. He figured out that he was already way too advanced compared to his teachers and there was nothing new that he could learn from staying in school (Lesinski, 2006). He wanted to explore the computer world without being bound by rules and boundaries set by the learning institution. His passion for learning new things made him not only a trailblazer the computer industry; it also made him a good example of a true leader. Bill Gates had the computer knowledge needed to build a good team and a strong company so it was just a matter of time before he was able to attract the best brains the country (Lesinski, 2006). According to Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991), a leader who has the task knowledge is more likely to inspire confidence among his or her subordinates. In the case of Bill Gates, he is an expert in his field so it is but natural that people who wants to get into the computer industry would look up to him. Bill Gates is highly motivated, goal driven and self-monitoring that is why he succeeded in a field which needs creativity and innovation. He did not need to be monitored by mentors or teachers to move forward and create something. He worked at a fasted pace, is a very good problem solver, dominant and emotionally stable (Lesinski, 2006). These leadership traits helped him early on when he was still building Microsoft from scratch. Because Bill Gates knows what he wants and has the passion to relentlessly pursue his goals, he becomes a symbol of an effective leader in our modern times. How did Bill Gates stay on top of the computer industry game for several years in a row? One thing for sure, he did not do it all by himself, he had help from his avid followers. By harnessing and transforming the energy and creativeness of his followers (Judge & Bono (2004), Bill Gates was able to rule the computer industry. If he did not have the right people under him, Bill Gates would not be able to bring Microsoft where it is now. Another very remarkable trait that Bill Gates exhibited as a leader was his ability to be a good team player. According to Stodgill (1974), a cooperative earns more respect from his or her subordinates than the dictatorial leader. In the case of Bill Gates, he knew that he is best suited as a software engineer so he stepped down as the CEO of Microsoft to take on the position of Chief Software Architect. This gesture does not only signify that he is a team player, it also display traits of openness, social intelligence and emotional stability described by Zaccaro et al (2003). When Bill Gates stepped down as CEO, he loses some degree of control over the company that he founded. Yes, he was still the Chairman of the Board of Directors when he stepped down as CEO but if we take a look at the general structures of corporations, the Board of Directors only have control over policies and regulations of the company and when it comes to operations, the CEO and the management team has the control. As a leader, Bill Gates understands what is good for the company and he is willing to make sacrifices to make the company successful. The ability to make sacrifices for the good of the organization as well as the ability to see certain situations at different perspectives are good trait of an effective leader (Hoffman & Frost, 2006; Northouse, 2006); Judge & Bono, 2004). On the other hand, Steve Jobs had to drop out of college because he did not have enough money to pay for his tuition and for his board and lodging. He was so poor that he could hardly afford to eat three times a day (Young, 2005). However, despite the fact that Steve Jobs had no money, he found ways to compensate for what he lacked by leaning hard on his strength. Like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs has task knowledge and has the ability to motivate people through the sheer power of his mind. He did not have the money to start a company but he was still able to build a multibillion computer empire which is Apple Inc. How did Job start Apple Inc without a lot of money in the bank and without even a decent computer to work with? In 1976, when Jobs started Apple computer, he had no employees and he only had a tiny room which he calls his office (Burrows, P 2006). By 2005, the company that started with nothing grew to be of the giants in the computer industry with about 15,000 employees and offices in different parts of the globe (Young, 2005). According to Young (2005), Jobs’ ability to strive for perfection, innovate and convey his ideas to his followers made him a very effective leader. To breakdown the tasks at the company make ideas flow more freely, Jobs created small teams of highly talented people to work for the company (Young, 2005). These highly motivated teams worked independently from each other hand Jobs made it a policy that the first team to come up with good ideas and turn these ideas into winning products get the rewards that it deserves (Young, 2005). By letting his employees feel that they are part of the success of the company, Jobs was able to ignite the feeling of brand fanaticism and transforms his personal interest into company interest (Burrows, P 2006). As a leader, Jobs is Like Bill Gates who is self-confident, persistent, insightful, responsible and highly motivated. Like Bill Gates, Jobs know how to motivate people and he believes that every individual under him has potentials to create something useful. He keeps telling his people to listen to their inner voice and follow their heart and intuition to create something unique and innovative (Young, 2005). He strongly believes that everyone in his company has potential to contribute to the team so he sees to it that everyone’s ideas are heard and vigorously debated upon (Young, 2005). Jobs want his people to feel a sense of ownership over a project so that everyone will have a personal stake on its success (Young, 2005). He believes that once a person has a personal stake over a certain project; he or she will be more motivated to work hard and make that project successful (Young, 2005). In a sense, we can say that Jobs has the traits of both a transformational and motivational leader. First, he was able to transform the potentials of his subordinates and turn their ideas into some unique products and second, he was able to truly motivate his people to be creative and innovative. Aside from Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, another man who can be considered as an iconic leader is Jack Welch who was the CEO of General Electric (GE) for more than 20 years. Unlike Bill Gates and Steve Jobs who started their companies from scratch, Jack Welch assumed the position of CEO at GE when the company was in a bad shape (Byrne & Welch, 2001). While Welch was the CEO of GE, he shaped the company according to his vision of what a truly competitive organization should be (Byrne & Welch, 2001). Like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, he knows how to hire the right kind of people and to motivate them to work hard for the company. Despite the fact that Jack Welch is less open to change (Byrne & Welch, 2001) than Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, he has other leadership characteristics that made him very effective at his job. Welch knows how to build teams and make these teams come up with great ideas that work effectively for the company. (Byrne & Welch, 2001). As leader, Welch was driven and highly competitive that he has the tendency to bully people into submission (Byrne & Welch, 2001). His blunt and impatient nature made him a tough person to work for but he also knows when and how to reward his people for a job well-done so despite the fact that he was difficult to work for, many of his employees stayed with him because they knew that Welch will take care of them and the company (Byrne & Welch, 2001). According to Kouzes, J.,Posner, B. (1999), for a leader to be able to build a strong and cohesive team, he or she must be able to manage the emotions of his or her subordinates and turn these emotions into something positive and what was what Welch did when he took over the management of GE. While serving as CEO of GE, Welch exhibited the following elements of effective leadership: the ability set clear goals, communicate the vision of the company to employees, give personalized attention to important matters concerning the company and its employees, tell inspiring stories, celebrate the success of the company together with the subordinates of employees, and set examples (Byrne & Welch, 2001). III. Conclusion Leadership is an art which enables different types of leaders develop traits and characteristic that make them effective and leading people. Leadership traits vary from one leader, some leaders lead by sheer force of their personalities, others cooperate and motivate while others use their task knowledge to sway people to their side. By controlling the emotions of people and instilling a sense of belongingness and project ownership, leaders like Jack Welch, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were able to create multibillion dollar businesses. 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