This week’s readings focused on leadership traits, skills, motivation, and effectiveness. Throughout my life I have observed people and wondered how traits have shaped them as a leader. Are individuals born with certain traits that make them destined to become an effective leader? Or do their skills and experiences make a person an effective leader? I do not think it is just traits or only the skills and experiences that will measure a leader’s effectiveness. I believe a good balance of traits, skills and experiences make up an effective leader. Yukl even suggests based on trait research that “some traits and skills increase the likelihood that a leader will be effective, but they do not guarantee effectiveness” (Yukl, 2013, p. 137).
We all have our definition of traits, but Yukl defines a trait as “a variety of individual attributes including aspects of personality, temperament, needs, motives, and values” (Yukl, 2013, p. 136). There seems to be an almost endless amount of traits a person can possess, but some play an important role in leadership effectiveness. These traits include: affiliation, achievement orientation, personal integrity, emotional stability and maturity, internal locus of control orientation, self-confidence, energy level and stress tolerance. Going back to what I mentioned about a good balance, these traits contribute to making a leader effective if they can display the proper levels. For example, high energy level and stress tolerance make a leader more effective because they can help “cope with the hectic pace, long hours, and unrelenting demands” (Yukl, 2013, p. 139). A leader who demonstrates a high level of achievement orientation when compared to one with weak achievement orientation are more likely “to have a strong concern for task objectives; they are more willing to assume responsibility for solving task-related problems; they are more likely to take the initiative in discovering these problems and acting decisively to solve them; and they prefer solutions that involve moderate levels of risk” (Yukl, 2013, p. 145). It is also important for an effective leader to maintain a low need for affiliation since most research has found “a negative correlation between need for affiliation and managerial effectiveness” (Yukl, 2013, p. 146). In addition to the aforementioned traits associated with leader effectiveness, I cannot forget about the ever popular “Big Five” personality model. This model is used to simplify and broadly define human personality traits. The Big Five include surgency, conscientiousness, agreeableness, adjustment, and intellectance.
I know there is always room for improvement in being a better leader because leadership is not static. However, I possess some valuable traits, skills, and competencies in being an effective leader that help improve my value to my organization. Regarding my competencies, I have learned that I demonstrate some emotional intelligence skills such as empathy, self-regulation, and emotional self-awareness. These skills are especially helpful in stressful situations and thinking before I speak. I always ask myself “How will my response directly and indirectly affect those around me?” before responding to a situation. I also exhibit social intelligence by being adaptable and understanding not every situation requires the same response, regardless of how similar the situation may be to a previous experience. I have also learned I display high levels of conscientiousness and agreeableness according to the Big Five model. This is advantageous to my organization because I am dependable, maintain personal integrity, have a need for achievement, optimistic, and helpful. I also realize in being agreeable, so I have a relatively high need for affiliation. However, through experiences and self-recognition, I have learned how to control this need. Some contingency theories and situational variables can also assist in improving my value to my organization. I believe the path-goal theory is very effective because the leader can positively influence subordinates’ satisfaction and performance through participative and achievement-oriented leadership (Yukl, 2013). Furthermore, I think it is inevitable that a leader will have to deal with situational variables. As long as the leader can recognize these variables and understand that they most of these variable are out of their control, they will be successful.
References:
Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in organizations
(8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall
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