BUS603: Managing People

Drive

Leaders tend to be highly motivated individuals. This inner drive is reflected in a number of common ways. They reflect a greater effort level in general, they strive for achievement, they have greater ambition, they work with greater energy, they are often tenacious, and they are more likely to take the initiative rather than wait for someone else to do so.

Desire to Lead

Effective leaders also tend to have a strong desire toward leadership roles and functions. Although others are happier to allow others to take the lead, leaders want to do so themselves.

Honesty/Integrity

The moral aspect of leadership is highly significant. Effective leaders must demonstrate high levels of honesty and integrity. This is essential to inspiring confidence and trust from employees and other followers, without which a leader is not likely to be effective. Dishonesty may not always be revealed at first, but it usually is with time. There are many stories of business leaders who are successful for a period of time but later find themselves in serious trouble due to dishonest or unethical practices. For example, Martin Winterkorn became embroiled in ethical and legal controversy after a period of strong success as CEO of Volkswagen.

Self-Esteem /Self-Confidence

These two elements, self-esteem and self-confidence, are closely related and tend to be prominent in leaders. Perhaps it is best to view these traits in terms of the negative perspective. A lack of self-esteem and self-confidence is very problematic for a leader. When these traits are lacking, doubts arise and insecurities plague a leader's activities. The leader tends to be confident that his beliefs, plans, and actions are correct (hopefully with good reason). This confidence is important in that it enables the leader to persist steadfastly in the right course even when there are obstacles and doubts from others.

Open-Mindedness

At the same time, effective leaders also tend to be open-minded to new ideas and experiences. They recognize that innovation is often valuable, and they also tend to consider ideas and suggestions from others. Self-confidence and self-esteem do not have to conflict with this spirit of open-mindedness. When they do, the result is generally harmful.

Intelligence

One obvious trait that many people look for in leaders is intelligence. Studies have shown that this is indeed an important qualification. It has been suggested, however, that pure cognitive ability is a "threshold" qualification. That is, it is important for the entrance into leadership roles. However, once within the leadership circle, most individuals have relatively high intelligence levels, so mere cognitive ability is not enough to distinguish a leader from other leaders.

Further, pure cognitive ability is only one type of intelligence. Relational and emotional intelligence are also important aspects for leaders to develop. An over-reliance on strict cognitive intelligence can be very inhibiting to effective leadership.

Extraversion

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

Bill Gates, Microsoft

Another unsurprising personality trait that is commonly associated with leadership is being an extrovert. Leaders tend to be outgoing and social in their personalities, which helps them take the lead and act with initiative. It also helps them with the important aspect of connecting to and inspiring others through relationships.

Though many leaders are extraverts, there are certainly examples of successful leaders who are not. Sometimes other strengths are sufficient to compensate for not being an extravert, or sometimes a leader who is not naturally an extravert is able to train himself to be more outgoing in behavior when needed, though this still does not generally change the leader's basic personality. Bill Gates of Microsoft and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook are two prominent examples of extremely successful leaders who are introverts by personality.