Reflecting on Leadership
Traits
On the trait approach to leadership it
is defended that an individual was born or has some innate characteristics which
will influence her/his leadership effectiveness. There are a lot of criticism
around this specific approach however it is undeniable that an individual trait
influence the quality of the way situations will be led and their outcome.
In my opinion, my main traits
which add from my ability to lead are alertness, assertiveness, extraversion,
responsibility and I am problem solving driven. In my work environment, I
frequently get a positive feedback from my team and my superiors regarding to
these traits, and personally I think they add a lot for my leadership level,
which is supervisory, however I find that sometimes they can lead me to a negative
perspective, depending on the situation and the individual who will be led. According
to Northouse (2016, p. 31), the trait approach has failed to take situation into
account and to look at traits in relationship to leadership outcomes, however,
even if the approach officially does not consider these two variants, I could
never mention my traits as positive while ignoring the uniqueness of each
situation and individual.
For an instance, I lead an average of five to seven different set of
people (coming from over 100 nationalities) every month, I spent my time with
the same individuals up to thirty hours in my life time and I rarely see them
again, ever. My assertiveness can be most of the time positive, but how it will
be seeing and impact in other depends on the person I am dealing with (which is
challenging in my reality) and the situation in full. My assertiveness can be
seen as rudeness, lacking in details and extremist (in Asian culture, most probably,
not even a man is assertive as I am, and naturally the Asian women might get
defensive with this specific traits and consequently not respond to my guidance
and direction the way I expect). I think alertness and responsibility is very
positive overall, but extraversion, again, can be interpreted in a negative
way.
Since I am a child I have heard people saying I am a natural leader. I
never really understood what they meant but now, studying the subject, I get
some of their points. My traits as a human being is often found in people who hold
a leadership position. I take initiative when things need to be done, my tone
of voice (which is often mentioned as strong) and the pace I talk, I think are
reasons which makes people listen to me. My patience and tolerance in my
professional environment, while dealing with problems or teaching my team members,
reached a high level along the years, and my dominance is a trait that I
consider inborn (noted by my parents and teachers). I hear I am intelligent
very often, but I do not agree with that. I might have a good level of
intelligence but my strength related to this trait I would define as smartness,
or what I describe as “what to do with your intelligence, no matter what level
it is”. Smartness is the most crucial trait in my opinion, which is not found
on published material. An individual can own a great amount of leadership
traits, but will never be a great leader if does not know how to use the traits
and if the traits are not shaped well.
What I find most important when analyzing leadership
traits, it is how it needs to be well evaluated in each occasion, applying
critical thinking in full and how it must be a constant and maybe daily process.
If this is analysis is done well, the traits of an individual in leadership
position will definitely impact positively on the outcome and goal achievement.
Another conclusion I came to, while reading about trait approach, is
that since the list of traits is extensive (the ones published on my reading
materials and the ones I agree to be essential), actually all the individuals
will have at least one trait which will contribute to the leadership
effectiveness. It is not clear how many traits a person might possess in order
to be a great leader, so this gap leaves up with another thought regarding
traits and leadership effectiveness. Is it only a specific group of people
which will be able to succeed as leader? Is leadership available for everyone,
as a process which can be developed and trained?
The mentality of most organization’s head leaders needs to change.
Seeking for people with specific and clear characteristics is important, but
looking at potential and hidden leaders in the organization is essential. Most,
if not all individuals, has a leadership trait which can contribute to the goal
achievement as a leader. Leadership is not a rank defined in job positions, or
available for few. Each occasion requires specific traits, and with that, maybe
different individuals to lead the situation, so in this case, people designated
for leadership official positions, needs not only to possess the common
leadership traits, but to add humility and sensitiveness along with deep knowledge
of their human resources.
REFERENCE
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: theory and practice. (7th edition). Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
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