Leadership Essay: Characteristics Of A Good Leader

Leadership Essay

Have you been tasked to write an essay on leadership? Are you trying to stand out from the rest of your classmates? Well, you have landed on the right page. We have a written a leadership essay that will help you catch the attention of your professor.

STRUCTURE OF THE ESSAY

Introduction
Characteristics Of a Good Leader / Qualities of a Good Leader
Conclusion

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Leadership Essay

Here is the model answer for Leadership Essay: Characteristics Of A Good Leader

Introduction

Good leadership is the fuel that enables an individual or an organization to drive and lead forward. While the myth – that ‘leaders are born’ is not necessarily true, as proven by some charismatic Industrial leaders like Richard Branson, who once was a victim of dyslexia, leadership can be learned with practice. Irrespective of the qualification and educational merit, anyone can become a leader.

Robin S Sharma, a leadership speaker, lawyer by education and author of the best-selling novel said “Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It’s about impact, influence, and inspiration. Impact involves getting results, influence is about spreading the passion you have for your work, and you have to inspire team-mates and customers.”

A real leader is one who not only inspires others but also understands each member of his/her team. While communication, attitude and commitment to get the work done are the essential ingredients of a good leader, other traits (or characteristics) that enable real leadership in a leader are Creativity, Empathy, Ethics, Ability to take responsibility, Ability to challenge failure, among others.

What are some of the critical values that can transform an ordinary person into a charismatic and larger-than-life leader?

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Characteristics Of A Good Leader

1. Positive Attitude

Being the most significant characteristic that defines leadership, positive attitude is essential energy that a leader must have. Attitude is what shapes a leader. It’s not necessary that each member of a team will have the same approach, but imbibing a positive attitude in each of them can put an idea to life, regardless of the difficulty. Taking your group on an outing, offering snacks at work and appreciating each one without bias will keep them on track.

2. Accountability

Passing the buck on to others in situations challenged by failure is easy. But taking the responsibility of it and being accountable is what separates an employee from a leader. Accountability and Transparency go hand-in-hand. Larry Robins, a hedge fund maverick, once wrote an apology letter to his investors explaining about his failure to turn their funds into profit. Then, he started another hedge fund company without charging any brokerage free to his beloved investors to is what defines accountability.

3. Empathy

Committing mistakes is part of parcel of our life. Leaders – who understand that they are leading a team encompassing humans, and not robots – will eventually be a beneficiary of robust engagement, high productivity, and ever-lasting loyalty. Satya Nadella, CEO of the most significant software company in the world, said in an interview ” empathy has been the highest priority in remodeling the culture of Microsoft.”

4. Responsibility

A good leader is never afraid to take responsibility. Inculcating this value will not only show that you are accountable and transparent but also will inspire others to take responsibility for their share of actions. While parents have a responsibility to nurture their child and educate them, a politician should give good governance to people of his/her country. While a teacher has a responsibility to inspire learning, a CEO has the responsibility to lead and execute a company’s strategies, and achieve the long-term goals.

5. Communication

Communication, as the definition goes, is the process of disseminating information from one party to another. A leader must have the ability to communicate the vision in mind to his/her team members in a more definite and precise manner. Even a small amount of gap in communication can lead to chaos. Hence, the communication of a leader must be clear and crisp so that the entire team shares the same vision and goals.

6. Ability to challenge failure

Disappointment will happen in any workplace; however, the way the frustration is taken care of will decide how high the authority is inside the organization. Ability to manage failure is first and foremost skill to succeed in life or the company.

An incredible pioneer will resist the urge to panic amid an unpleasant circumstance. Make utilization of the greater part of the assets accessible and coherently discover a way towards the possible solution. Communicating that leadership can make you stressed out can cause mayhem and negative assurance among colleagues, so stay positive and show how to transform difficulty into a stage forward.

7. Focus

The more a leader is focused, the better the outcome of his/her engagement with the team. The subordinates will typically follow the point of discussion set forth by the leader. ‘Focus is a trait that defines the pace of productivity and commitment to the team towards work. Therefore, it is important for the leader to ensure that the focus is crystal-clear and priorities for the team are set early on. Distraction from focus will eventually lead to poor productivity and hindrance in triumphing the goals set to be accomplished.

8. Innovative

Innovation is the ‘life and blood’ of any industry. In fact, the only aspect that can decide the fate whether a company will survive or die is its ability to innovate great products. And innovation happens with unique ideas. Simon Sinek famously said, ” What good is an idea if it remains an idea? Try. Experiment. Iterate. Fail. Try again. Change the world”.

A leader brings in a lot of innovative ideas and inspires his subordinates as well to ideate on the original scale to remain above the competition. Innovation as a strategy is always on top of a leader’s mind. Creativity and Innovation are the two sides of the same coin. And they cannot be separated from other.

9. Delegation

Delegation refers to the breaking-up of a job into multiple tasks and assigning each work to a team member. A leader must be able to attach responsibility to each of them. He or she should not take up all the burden alone. Furthermore, the leader should comprehend the strengths and weaknesses of each of the team member, and assign a task accordingly. Plus, delegating a task will help the leader in fulfilling the managerial responsibilities.

Final Verdict (Conclusion)

The universal myth that leaders are born and not made is no more accurate, given the examples of several great leaders we have today. There is no denying that everybody can become a leader, but it is true that not every leader can be significant.

The traits listed above must be instinctive in every leader to lead and be followed. On the one hand, a boss is one who shifts all his responsibilities on to a leader. On the other side, a leader is one who takes up those and completes in collaboration with his team. Hence success and real leadership are synonymous.

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