Leadership Questions

By definition leadership is the action of leading a group of people or an organization (Merriam-Webster, 2012). Therefore, anyone should be able to lead. Not so much. Leadership is an umbrella adjective that encompasses certain qualities that one needs to be an effective leader. To connect with the people you are charged with leading one must possess a certain set of characteristics and skills. This paper will discuss some of the traits that make an effective leader.

I think that a good leader has to be charismatic, well spoken, and engaging. A charismatic leader has a good personality and can make people feel at ease with following them. A leader should be well spoken so he or she is able to get his or her point across to the masses. People have to understand what the leader is requesting of them this is what makes that particular attribute so important. An engaging leader is able to get others to want to be involved with whatever the process might be.

One of the differences between leadership and management is that one concept is not dependent on the other. One does not need to be a leader to hold a management position. It would be nice for a manager to have leadership qualities but it is not necessary to get the job done. Another difference between a leader and a manager is that the manager has the formal authority to make people follow him or her, while people follow a leader just because they want to. In addition, most times a manager has obtained that position through time spent and loyalty to a company not necessarily because he or she had leadership qualities.

Characteristics of an effective leader are traits such as humility, good communication skills, honesty, and good persuasive skills. A leader needs to be humble in order to receive feedback from the group. A leader should be equipped with good communication skills to effectively communicate with others. Leaders need to be honest and try to do the right thing at all times, this will gain trust from the group. Lastly, a good leader has to have good persuasive skills to get people to do things for him or her.

Leaders are people who regardless of position have the qualities it takes to get others to follow them. One does not need to be in a management position to be a leader; in fact, many managers lack what it takes to sufficiently lead their employees. A leader is a visionary who is capable of making others see his or her vision and want to participate in it.