PERSONALITY TRAITS OF AN EFFECTIVE LEADER

Do you find some special traits of an effective leader as compared to a leader who is not so effective ? During the period of my consultancy work, I have discovered leadership characteristics that contribute to leadership effectiveness. An executive might perform admirably as a leader in several different high technology companies with different organizational cultures. However, his intellectual style might make him a poor fit with production workers.

Personality traits are observable both within and outside the context of work. The same personality traits are related to success and satisfaction in both work and personal life.

Self Confidence

A leader who is self-assured without being bombastic or overbearing instills confidence in the team members. A leader can demonstrate his self confidence by having a wide knowledge and skills on the subject being discussed or a project he has undertaken. His posture, the use of words, and appropriate gesture will make a difference when he interact with his team members.. It is a behavior where one maintains cool under pressure and composure when dealing with a crisis.



Trustworthiness

Evidence and opinion that being trustworthy and / or honest contributes to leadership effectiveness continue to mount ( Jones & George 1998, McCune 1998 ). An effective leader walk the talk thereby maintaining consistency between deeds ( walk ) and words ( talk ). It is one’s confidence in another individual’s intentions and motives and the sincerity of that individual’s words. A leader that trust his team member will enable the team to excel to achieve the organization’s goal.

When an organization encounters problems, a successful leader will move into problem solving mode instead of looking to blame others for what went wrong. He will build a reputation for doing what he thinks is morally right. He tells the truth and conduct himself in the way he asked others to conduct themselves.

Extroversion

From the organizations where I have done work, I found that in a successful organization, their leaders are gregarious and outgoing in all situations. They are friendly, sociable, self confidence, appear relaxed. When they are stressed, they would look outside for relief. They might go shopping, call friends to come over or arrange a party. They are energized form without, and they look for meaning outside of themselves.



Assertiveness

It is the forthright in expressing demands, opinions, feelings and attitudes – such as confronting group members about their mistakes, demanding higher performance, setting high expectations and making legitimate demands on higher management. When I was working with a German multi national corporations, I called our factory in China and told our marketing manager that “ our service to the client is bad, we need to improve. “ The marketing manager immediately took actions and our market share in China grew from 20% to 35% in 18 months. That was a great achievement.

Assertive leaders makes explicit remarks without turning them into bullying threats. They are soft in their use of words.



Emotional Stability

Effective leaders have the ability to control emotions to the point that one’s emotional responses are appropriate to the occasion. Emotions associated with low emotional stability include anxiety, depression, anger, embarrassment and worry.

Team members need consistency in the way how they are being treated by their leaders.

My personal experience tell me that an emotionally unstable and lack composure person are most likely to handle pressure poorly and give in to moodiness, outbursts of anger, and inconsistent behavior. Such inconsistency undermines their relationships with group members, peers, and superiors. In contrast, effective leaders are generally calm, confident, and predictable during a crisis.



Enthusiasm

Team members will respond positively to a leader with high energy, dynamic and enthusiastic. A leader who has high energy helps build good relationships with team members. People look to you to inspire them. It is the greatest tool for motivating others and for getting things done. As a leader, you have to get out in front of your people. Even the most enthusiastic employee is loath to show more of it than his or her boss. If you do not project a gung-ho attitude, everybody else will hold back ( Executive Strategies, 1992 )

Richard Brandson, the entrepreneur responsible the Virgin Group of Companies, exemplifies an enthusiastic leader. Much of his enthusiasm is directed at taking on very large companies and he does this by encouraging and empowering his staff. He promotes an adventurous, optimistic and friendly image.



Sense of Humor

Humors adds to the approachability and people orientation of a leader. I once interviewed a senior vice president of a multinational corporations Nancy Miller in the United States. She is 60 years ago when I interviewed her. She said: “ my demanding career had not allowed me for having a husband and children. “ I commented that “ you could still get married. “ Nancy retorted. “ Well, certainly – pass my name card to all of your friends and ask them to call me. “

Laughter and humor serve as relieving tension and boredom and defusing hostility. Humor helps a leader to defuse tension and conflict, it helps him to exert power over the group.



Warmth

Being a warm person and projecting that warmth projecting contribute to leadership effectiveness. First, warmth facilities the establishments of rapport with group members. Second, the projection of warmth is a key component of charisma. Third, warmth is a trait that facilitates providing emotional support to group members. Giving such support is an important leadership behavior. Fourth, in the words of Kogan Page, “ warmth comes with the territory. Cold fish don’t make good leaders because they turn people off. “

High Tolerance of Frustration

An effective leader needs to tolerate high level of frustration. For example, a manager needs to spend 12 months doing strategic plan and then be informed that the top management does not want the plan implemented.

An effective leader needs to cope the blocking of goal attainment.

Conclusion

Leadership has been attributed to an individual. A leader is characterized by a strong drive for responsibility and task completion; vigor and persistence in pursuit of goals; venturesome-ness and originality in problem solving; drive to exercise initiative in social situations; self confidence and sense of personal identity; willingness to accept consequences of decision and action; readiness to absorb interpersonal stress; willingness to tolerate frustration and delay; ability to influence other persons behavior, and capacity to structure social interaction systems to the purpose at hand.

The clusters of characteristics listed above differentiate leaders from followers, effective from ineffective leaders, and high echelon from lower echelon leaders. In other words, different strata of leaders and followers can be described in terms of the extent of which they exhibit these traits.