Running head: UNDERSTANDING EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP 1. Necessary Traits and Styles needed for Effective Leadership. Scott Walsh, P.E.

Transcription

1 Running head: UNDERSTANDING EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP 1 Necessary Traits and Styles needed for Effective Leadership Scott Walsh, P.E. LEAD500 Leadership Styles and Theories April 5, 2012 Dr. Ronald Beach Southwestern College Professional Studies

2 Effective Leadership Traits 2 Abstract Leadership has traits that separate leaders from nonleaders. Kirkpatrick & Locke (1991) were able to define six distinguishing traits; drive, honesty/integrity, self-confidence, cognitive ability, and knowledge of the business (p73). I find that out of these six, drive and self-confidence are the two that I connect with the most. An effective leader is able to translate these six distinguishing traits into action. They are also aware that leadership is a social skill. Leaders must not only be able to formulate a plan that works within the context of the organization, they must also be able to implement this plan within a distinctly social context, marshaling support, communicating a vision, guiding subordinates, and motivating others. Thus, leaders must also be able to understand and work with others. (Mumford et. 2000) Interpersonal skills are a mark of a highly effective leader. A leader that is unable to operate in a social context is unable to effectively meet his or her mission. Leadership by its very nature is social. Necessary Traits and Styles needed for Solid Leadership

3 Effective Leadership Traits 3 Leadership Traits Do Matter Kirkpatrick & Locke (1991) state in their article that traits do matter (p73). In fact they point out the there are six traits that distinguish leaders from nonleaders. The first trait that they point out is drive. Drive is defined as a constellation of traits and motives reflecting a higheffort level. (Pierce & Newstrom 73, 2011) I believe that the two most important aspects of drive are achievement and initiative. Kirkpatrick & Locke state and I agree that an effective leader is proactive and has a need for achievement (p73). As a leader and a follower, I find it quite difficult to be a member of a team with individuals that do not have a need to advance themselves. I do not understand the attitude of complacency and attempt to motivate those individuals to see their potential and move them onto a path towards further development or achievement. The drive inside myself and other effective leaders that I interact with fuel us to develop ourselves and the persons around us. We want to lead others (Pierce & Newstrom 74, 2001) as it benefits the individual; however, it also benefits us as we are able to further develop our own skills. Another trait that distinguishes leaders from nonleaders is self-confidence. Selfconfidence plays an important role in decision making and in gaining others trust. (Pierce & Newstrom 76, 2011) Without self-confidence a leader is not able to effectively communicate, motivate, or influence their followers. The team would constantly be second guessing if the path forward was indeed correct because the leader was unable to confidently personify the goal. Within my organization we have leaders that lack self-confidence and their followers suffer because of it. The followers become unsure of themselves due to the lack of confidence from

4 Effective Leadership Traits 4 their leader. These teams are very difficult to work with as they are unable to come to a valid solution and therefore end up being excluded from the decision process. The organization suffers in the end because it is unable to maximize the potential of their employees due to the selfconfident groups segregating themselves from the unconfident groups and moving along with the decision making process. A Leaders Effectiveness Judge, Ilies, Bono, & Gerhardt (2002) state in their article that effectiveness refers to a leader s ability to influence his or her subordinates. (p81) I have previously discussed how leaders without self-confidence are unable to influence their subordinates and therefore are ineffective. This leads one to ask, what are other traits that a leader can personify to be more effective? Extraversion is one that comes to mind and has been studied by Bass in Problem solving is another trait that an effective leader needs to personify. Extraversion is strongly related to social leadership. (Costa & McCrae, 1988) This statement could not be more right. I have not been in any organization where the effective leaders were not social and did not have exemplary interpersonal skills. If I think of leadership, a person leading a group of individuals to a common goal comes to my mind. This is a social group that requires the leader to create and maintain a good leader-member exchange with each individual. If a leader is unable to become a social individual, they will eventually lose their followers and eventually be removed from their leadership position due to ineffectiveness. Mumford & Connelly state that a leader s performance is a function of whether he or she can identify goals, construct viable goal paths, and direct others along these paths in a volatile, changing socio-technical environment. They must be able to coordinate the activities of others

5 Effective Leadership Traits 5 motivating them to meet mission requirements and must circumvent or resolve issues impeding progress towards accomplishing organizational goals (1991). An effective leader is able to look at a complex problem and provide an attainable solution. Without the ability to visualize solutions a leader is not a leader; they are a follower. Leaders have the ability to communicate their solution to the followers doers in such a way that they can see the vision and able to accomplish the mission; however, they were not able to initially visualize the solution. If a leader manages to ensure that all functions critical to both task accomplishment and group maintenance is adequately taken care of, then the leader has done his or her job well. (McGrath 5, 1962) A Leaders Motive It has been established that leaders have traits that distinguish themselves from nonleaders. It has also been established how effective leaders utilize these traits to accomplish their visions. The question is raised, what motivates a leader to take action and lead? Chan and Drasgow (2001) suggest that the motivation to lead may be multidimensional in nature. Some people are motivated to lead simply because they like the role. Others choose to lead out of a sense of duty or responsibility (p. 67). In the private sector industries I have been a part of, the most effective leaders were the ones that simply liked being leaders. They gained personal enjoyment out of leading people. The leaders that lead out of a sense of duty tended to be effective at completing a task; however, they were not as effective in motivating their teams, developing their teams or themselves, or maximizing their influence. They saw themselves as individuals that were senior ranking in the company and felt they should or had to lead a group of subordinates because it was what a person in their position was supposed to do. Effective leaders

6 Effective Leadership Traits 6 enjoy being leaders and that joy is spread throughout their teams. Their teams develop themselves and emulate the leader and some will eventually progress to becoming effective leaders themselves. Leaders that like being leaders develop future leaders that like being leaders. Conclusion In attempting to understand the traits necessary for effective leadership, I attempted to address the notion that leadership traits do matter, that leadership traits put into action make an effective leader, and that effective leaders are motivated. First, I defined two of the six traits outlined as necessary to distinguish leaders from nonleaders. Second, I explained how effective leaders are able to take their distinguishing traits and put them into action to ensure that all functions critical to both task accomplishment and group maintenance are adequately taken care of. (McGrath 5, 1962) Third, I attempted to define how effective leaders are also motivated individuals. I also correlated that motivated effective leaders are individuals that are able to grow and develop future effective leaders. References Bass, B. M. (1990). Bass and Stogdill s handbook of leadership. New York: Free Press. Chan, K. Y., & Drasgow, F. (2001). Toward a theory of individual differences and leadership: Understanding the motivation to lead. Journal of Applied Psychology. 86, Costa, P.T., Jr., & McCrae, R. R. (1988). Personality in adulthood: A six-year longitudinal study of self-reports and spouse ratings on the NEO Personality Inventory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54,

7 Effective Leadership Traits 7 Judge, T., Ilies, R., Bono, J., & Gerhardt, M. (2002). Personality and leadership: A qualitative and quantitative review. Journal of Applied Psychology Copyright 2002 American Psychological Association. Kirkpatrick, S.A.., & Locke, E.A. (1991). Leadership: do traits matter?. Academy of Management Executive, 5(2), Mumford, M., Zaccaro, S., Harding, F., Jacobs, T., & Fleishman, E. (2000). Leadership skills for a changing world: Solving complex social problems. Leadership Quarterly, 11(1), Mumford, M.D., & Connelly, M.S. (1991). Leaders as creators: Leader performance and problem solving in ill-defined domains. Leadership Quarterly. 2, Pierce, J., & Newstrom, J. (2011). Leaders and the Leadership Process. New York: McGraw- Hill Irwin.