- What traits do they possess?
The five leadership traits/leadership qualities are:
•Honest
•Forward-Looking
•Competent
•Inspiring
•Intelligent
(These five qualities come from Kouzes and Posner's research into leadership that was done for the book The Leadership Challenge.)
Honesty: People want to follow an honest leader. Years ago, many employees started out by assuming that their leadership was honest simply because the authority of their position. With modern scandals, this is no longer true.
When you start a leadership position, you need to assume that people will think you are a little dishonest. In order to be seen as an honest individual, you will have to go out of your way to display honesty. People will not assume you are honest simply because you have never been caught lying.
One of the most frequent places where leaders miss an opportunity to display honesty is in handling mistakes. Much of a leader's job is to try new things and refine the ideas that don't work. However, many leaders want to avoid failure to the extent that they don't admit when something did not work.
Forward Looking: When people do not consider their leader forward-looking, that leader is usually suffering from one of two possible problems:
-The leader doesn't have a forward-looking vision.
-The leader is unwilling or scared to share the vision with others.
When a leader doesn't have a vision for the future, it usually because they are spending so much time on today, that they haven't really thought about tomorrow. On a very simplistic level this can be solved simply by setting aside some time for planning, strategizing and thinking about the future.
Many times when a leader has no time to think and plan for the future, it is because they are doing a poor job of leading in the present. They have created an organization and systems that rely too much on the leader for input at every stage.
Competency: People want to follow someone who is competent. This doesn't mean a leader needs to be the foremost expert on every area of the entire organization, but they need to be able to demonstrate competency.
For a leader to demonstrate that they are competent, it isn't enough to just avoid displaying incompetency. Some people will assume you are competent because of your leadership position, but most will have to see demonstrations before deciding that you are competent.
When people under your leadership look at some action you have taken and think, "that just goes to show why he is the one in charge", you are demonstrating competency. If these moments are infrequent, it is likely that some demonstrations of competency will help boost your leadership influence.
Intelligence: Intelligence is something that can be difficult to develop. The road toward becoming more intelligent is difficult, long and can't be completed without investing considerable time. Developing intelligence is a lifestyle choice. Your college graduation was the beginning of your education, not the end. In fact, much of what is taught in college functions merely as a foundational language for lifelong educational experiences.
To develop intelligence you need to commit to continual learning–both formally and informally. With modern advances in distance, education it is easy to take a class or two each year from well respected professors in the evening at your computer.
Citation: (APA Format)
SHEAD, MARK. (2011, March 22). Five most important leadership traits. Retrieved from http://www.leadership501.com/five-most-important-leadership-traits/27/
- How do you think a good leader manages crisis under stressful situations?
The leader should take a moment to figure out what is going on. If the leader can't understand the full situation, he will guide his members wrongly and cause more troubles. Then, he should act promptly. He shouldn't hurry. The leader should also demonstrate control, if he panics, his members would also panic.
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