eLearning CE: Activity 3 - Ong Bing Jue(16)

   Traits of a Effective Leader:

• Emotional stability: Good leaders must be able to tolerate frustration and stress. Overall, they must be well-adjusted and have the psychological maturity to deal with anything they are required to face.

• Dominance: Leaders are often competitive, decisive and usually enjoy overcoming obstacles. Overall, they are assertive in their thinking style as well as their attitude in dealing with others.

• Enthusiasm: Leaders are usually seen as active, expressive and energetic. They are often very optimistic and open to change. Overall, they are generally quick and alert and tend to be uninhibited.

• Conscientiousness: Leaders are often dominated by a sense of duty and tend to be very exacting in character. They usually have a very high standard of excellence and an inward desire to do their best. They also have a need for order and tend to be very self-disciplined.

• Social boldness: Leaders tend to be spontaneous risk-takers. They are usually socially aggressive and generally thick-skinned. Overall, they are responsive to others and tend to be high in emotional stamina.

• Self-assurance: Self-confidence and resiliency are common traits among leaders. They tend to be free of guilt and have little or no need for approval. They are generally unaffected by prior mistakes or failures.

• Compulsiveness: Leaders are controlled and very precise in their social interactions. Overall, they are very protective of their integrity and reputation and consequently tended to be socially aware and careful, abundant in foresight, and very careful when making decisions or determining specific actions.

• Intuitiveness: Rapid changes in the world today, combined with information overload result in an inability to know everything. In other words, reasoning and logic will not get you through all situations. In fact, more and more leaders are learning the value of using their intuition and trusting their gut when making decisions.

• Empathy: Being able to put yourself in the other person's shoes is a key trait of leaders today. Without empathy, you can't build trust; without trust, you will never be able to get the best effort from your employees.

• Charisma: People usually perceive leaders as larger than life. Charisma plays a large part in this perception. Leaders who have charisma are able to arouse strong emotions in their employees by defining a vision which unites and captivates them. Using this vision, leaders motivate employees to reach toward a future goal by tying the goal to substantial personal rewards and values.
  
  Source:http://www.sba.gov/content/being-leader
  (Being a Leader)
  
  How do you think a good leader manages crisis under stressful situations?

• Leaders need to lead not only in a crisis, but also in doing pre-work beforehand.They need to learn to frame crisis not as a threat but as an opportunity. Of course, there's a need to deal with the threat and dangers first, but if you stop with that, you lose your chance for the potential that event might bring.'

 Good crisis leaders nurture a huge payoff mentality. … It's believing that some good will come from this.There's an expectation that going    through the challenges of dealing with a crisis will pay off in some respect.

• Leaders should develop a propensity to adapt to change, need to develop a capability to scan and see possibilities amidst the chaos of a crisis. They can't just see the face value. They should have to have the ability to see possibilities beyond the obvious.
  
  
• The right team supporting the besieged leader is critical,sort of an expectation of mutual trust and respect.A team you support and a team that supports you.That trust.
• When facing a crisis, the best leaders are able to make sense of the situation early on and separate the noise of the crisis from what really matters — the people who are adversely affected by the situation or the leader's response to it. Another important early step is to take the perspective of key stakeholders. Others will experience the crisis differently than the leader, and unless she or he can empathize with them, it will be difficult to identify response strategies or make decisions that will meet their needs and expectations.

"Show grace and integrity during a crisis,Demonstrate compassion."

Source:http://www.darden.virginia.edu/web/Media/Darden-News-Articles/2010/James-New-Book-on-How-to-Handle-a-Crisis/
(Jame's New Book on How to handle a crisis)