Any organization or group needs a person to guide its members
to achieve their common goals. The leader is given the authority to make
decisions or take actions in the organization’s behalf. Material and human
resources of the organization are also made available at his disposal and use
in order for him to accomplish his mission. The leader is the most important
person in the organization because its affairs revolve around him. He is the
embodiment of the organization that he represents, and he is held primarily responsible
for its performance.
In their adult life most persons exercise leadership in one
way or another as they go about their livelihood activities. A person who
establishes a business has some employees to exercise leadership on. Military officers and public or private
individuals by virtue of their educational attainment and positions have also
to exercise leadership to get their jobs done. There are people who because of
their personality are natural leaders. But other people can learn the art of
leadership through formal education and application of its principles while on
the job.
People who exercise leadership have different degree of
effectiveness. Some leaders are good. Others can be rated as passable while
still others are ineffective. With my observation of different people such as
military officers, businessmen and even professionals, I have noticed some
common qualities that have made them effective leaders who made valuable
contributions to the success of their organization.
Those effective leaders are:
1.
Honest.
This characteristic is necessary not only for the leader but also for his
followers. People gauge one’s character on his honesty. The leader’s lack of it
means a loss of trust and confidence on him. He cannot work effectively once
his credibility is lost.
2.
Knowledgeable.
Subordinates have a high regard for a
leader whom they perceived as very knowledgeable in the field he is in. In
addition he cannot effectively lead his men to do a job in which he has
insufficient knowledge of. In this regard, a leader should always strive to
improve himself. He should continuously
update and increase his knowledge through formal and self education.
3.
Positive thinking.
All successful leaders are positive thinkers. Positivity of a leader also creates
an atmosphere of high spirit in the organization.
4.
Proactive.
A leader should make thing happens for the good of the organization and to
accomplish its goals. He should also take measures to preclude the happening of
unfavorable situation or to mitigate its effects if it ever comes at all.
5.
A team
person. A leader should make an effort to make his men a cohesive group
that can work together as one. He should not allow mutual animosity between them
to stand in the way in the accomplishment of tasks. He should foster a spirit
of camaraderie and cooperation in the group so that team work could be achieved.
6.
Devoted
to the well being of his men. Human resources are the leader’s greatest
asset. People unlike machines have
emotions and feelings. Too lenient
dealing with them may create an impression that the leader is soft. Strict handling of them may make subordinates
resentful and even rebellious. A leader can be authoritarian or democratic when
situation demands it or he may adapt a leadership style that is effective to
him because it suits his personality. The well being of the men should be one
of the leader’s utmost concerns to keep their morale high. Motivated employees
are responsive to the leader’s desire to accomplish his mission.
7.
Energetic.
A good leader is relentless pursuer of achievements. He is a man of action, and
he is full of physical energy. However, he need not be the busiest man in the
organization. He can carry out his task through his subordinates. The task that
he is expected to do most in the organization is supervision.
8.
Taking
full responsibility for his actions. In his organization, the buck stops at
the leader. He is the one primarily responsible for what his organization has
done or failed to do. He may delegate his authority to a subordinate but doing
so will not relieve him of his responsibility as the leader of the organization.
9.
Taking
calculated risks when opportunity presents itself. In a certain situation
in business, military or other endeavors a leader should take daring steps to
advance the interest of his business or organization when there is opportunity
to do so. Failure to act means a lost opportunity. Failures are undesirable
experience, but doing nothing will also result to nothing.
1 Establishing
a network of good working relationship with other people or organization. Some
leaders work in a large company so that his organization is under another
bigger organization. In that case, a good leader has the ability to be always in
the good graces of his superiors to make the accomplishment of his mission easier.
If need be, he should also connect with people outside the organization if
doing so will help him do his job better. His network of people whom he has
working relationship with will make it easier for him to accomplish his
missions.
1 Charismatic.
There are people whose personality is like a magic so that people like them.
Charisma is definitely a boost to one’s leadership ability. And a leader is
lucky if he has it. Some people have less or lack that attribute. Fortunately,
the art of effective leadership can be developed. Just being charismatic is not
an assurance of successful leadership because other qualities of leadership are
also equally or more important.
Application of leadership principles has the same effect whether
a leader is in a big or in a small organization, in the civilian or in the military
establishments or in a non-profit or in a business organization. Leaders who displayed those above mentioned
qualities have proven to be successful in the accomplishment of their mission.
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