Leadership is definitely a complex notion that involves many aspects with many applications and details. Although this notion has appeared quite a long time ago still there is no exact definition of it. Leadership requires personal approach and it is impossible to become a really good leader just based on the well-known rules and without uniqueness. It is important to remain authentic in every sphere, though the world often makes us less unique and often alike.
Leadership has definitely become an integral part of the society and its gradual development. Every day we are surrounded by numerous people and in order to avoid chaos and frequent disputes there should be some leader who can manage the whole situation and show the best direction. We live in the world of numerous innovations and technologies and still it is impossible to cope without a powerful and skillful person who can show the correct way out.
Every aspect of our life including religion, business, politics and etc. requires the interference of leader. Although the exact actions of various leaders can differ, still the main idea and the most general characteristics are the same.
In information society, discussion is very much about people looking for charismatic leaders who can provide meaning in life and reduce modern uncertainties at the same time as social structures become more horizontal, and time as well as distance is disappearing. However, all societies, no matter where, are asking for leaders in their own terms, exerting their function in their own environment.
In order to understand and analyze my abilities in leadership I passed the test for Emotional IQ and that helped me to understand and clarify my current weaknesses and strengths. In result I can say that my strongest areas are leading change and building teams. I also had a rather high score in creative problem solving, confidence, trustworthiness, dependability and diligence.
Having analyzed and studied several solid research-based studies I was rather pleased to make a conclusion that I obtain several crucial and essential features of a leader. My strongest area is leading change and I agree that it is an essential component of a leader nowadays. Moreover, the results of the test also showed that my core ability and the best area is related with the identifying, perceiving and expressing emotions in myself and others, besides, in such a way I can succeed in reading other individuals, understand their emotions and thus optimize working experience or show leader skills in some other way.
It is very important to be aware of the situation and to be ready to change tactics and behavior in case of some unexpected alterations or modifications in the company or in the global business. Real leader should be always ready to make some changes and help his followers and team find new direction and follow it.
Motivation turned out to be my weakest area. However, I guess this aspect can be easily improved. It is possible to increase motivation if I get involved in the sphere that is interesting for me and I am sure that with some exact task and when I have responsibility for my team and my company I will definitely work harder and try to reach all the goals.
I think I am a transformational leader in some way and this type of leader doesn’t mean just to have followers. It means much more. It concerns making the leaders out of your followers. So that they can replace you in your leader position and try to lead other people, which is rather significant and valuable for us.
Transformational leadership can be performed in various ways, in as various as there are people aiming to take this position. But it requires something special inside us to make the leader not just the follower. You must have an inner strength not to be seduced by power to control others that come when you become the leader. Being the leader you have to possess a great morality, charisma, cognitive incentives and pay attention to people who trust you for who you are and not for what you do.
The main areas that a public leader should address in identifying specific traits, behavior, and skill set include such important areas as self-awareness, self-management, social and self-awareness, motivation, empathy and social skills. Emotional intelligence is an inevitable feature of every leader as it is the main recipe for success as it is very important for a leader to know how to cope with stress and remain calm and be able to assess situation without fear or favor.
In order to overcome all the difficulties concerning the Emotional IQ the leader should learn how to analyze every problem and find quick and proper solutions in order to avoid stress and misunderstanding. To be a leader you must have people to lead and personal authority. If you don’t have people who follow you, you don’t have power. We can say that people are the power of the leader, because if they trust you they will act for you and do what you want. When you are in a leader position, you can easily make mistakes and use it in a wrong way.
Moreover, the leader should pay attention to such important constituents of the leadership such as:
Charisma or idealized ascendancy.
It is a degree to which the leader admires everybody with his behavior and causes the followers to act in an admirable way. Charismatic people show convictions, take sands and make a great emotional impact on their followers. It can be said about the leader who has a pure set of values which are displayed in every action. It makes a special role model for their followers. Leaders and followers have to build a genuine trust in their relationships. It is created due to a solid moral and ethical basis.
Inspirational motivation.
The degree to which the leader brings forward a vision that is seen by the followers as something inspiring and appealing. Leaders with such motivation force followers to make great challenge in their life, advise them to be more optimistic about their future aims and ambitions and provide a sense for a task. If the followers have to be motivated to make a step forward, they have to possess a strong sense of purpose. It’s rather significant that the visional aspect of leadership is assisted by communication skills which give the leader a permission to suggest an opinion with accuracy and power in insurmountable and persuasive way.
Cognitive incentive.
The degree to which the leader takes assumptions and chances, requests the follower’s suggestions. People with such a characteristic feature excite and foster creativity in the followers. The leader makes a visual framework which allows seeing how the followers are connected to him, the institution, each other and a purpose. When there is this visual picture, the followers, having a free choice without any restrictions, can conquer any difficulty to perform their task.
Individualized consideration or attention.
As a conclusion I can say that there are numerous definitions of leadership and every leader chooses the most appropriate way to reach success and find motivation for him. However, there are several most widespread features that should be typical for every theory and every theory of leadership and according to the assessments several aspects can be considered to be my strongest areas. In result I’ve made my own definition of leadership and now I can clearly see my drawbacks and I know how to improve my abilities and knowledge.
