THESIS: Generally, after evaluating the facts, it appears that a successful leader is a charismatic person capable of guiding one’s subjects, inspiring them, and reducing to discipline by means of the use of his/her excellent communication, negotiation, and persuasive skills.
Leadership in quality is a broad concept that can acquire the most diversified forms and modes for its demonstration as a quality. It can be defined as the person’s ability to organize others to accomplish certain tasks and to do so in the most effective way which is reasonably expectable for any particular organization. Any organization is in need of a leader on its every level in order to function effectively.
The central idea behind a successful leader is in being able to motivate others to achieve definite goals beneficial for the whole group. A successful leader is to possess a row of important qualities including charisma, integrity, dedication, magnanimity, openness, fairness, creativity, assertiveness, positivism, a good sense of humor, and the constant desire for self-improvement. In the following paper, the notion of leadership will be examined along with the qualities which make a successful leader and the leader’s role in managing an organization. Generally, after evaluating the facts, it appears that a successful leader is a charismatic person capable of guiding one’s subjects, inspiring them, and reducing to discipline by means of the use of his/her excellent communication, negotiation, and persuasive skills.
The Definition of Quality Leadership
First of all, speaking about leadership in quality, it is important, to begin with, the definition of this important notion. Overall, quality leadership can be seen as an individual’s ability to organize others to accomplish certain tasks and to do so in the most effective and efficient way which is reasonably expectable for any particular organization and the situation it is found in (Howard 2005). A successful leader is a person with a row of important qualities, skills, capabilities, and values (Russette, Scully, & Preziosi 2008, p. 48).
Leader’s Main Skills and Capabilities
With regards to the main skills and capabilities the leader is to possess, it should be stated that they are quite many, of course. First of all, the leader is to have excellent communicating skills; and the better these skills are, especially in terms of his/her speech clearness, the better results in leadership will be achieved. This is explained by the importance of mutual understanding between the team of workers and their manager. Employees are to understand the leader’s vision without any unnecessary effort and stress. In addition, they are to be inspired by their leader and his/her passion for the work as passion is contagious.
Further, the leader should have a clear way of thinking enabling him/her to have a clear vision of business matters and the other important activities. The leader is to know where to go, how to go, and why. A good leader is able to develop any important business strategy, understand how to put it into practice, and help every member of his/her team to take one’s relevant place in exercising this vision.
Next, a good leader is to know how to gain his team’s trust as trust is another vital condition for the success of any business arrangement. According to Gabris & Ihrke (1996, p. 222),
Leadership credibility deals with perceived believability toward the leader-supervisor as someone an employee can trust in a superior-subordinate relationship. employees are more likely to believe in their supervisors when the latter:
- make themselves vulnerable to others;
- practice open communication;
- practice what they preach;
- follow through on promises;
- share their vision and values with employees;
- share power; and
- take risks and experiment.
All the above-mentioned characteristics are critical for both gaining the best results in “buying” subjects’ trust and in being successful as a header, in general.
Besides, a good leader is to be able to create a positive atmosphere in the collective body. Such a positive atmosphere will add to good communication between all the participants of the business process, thus, establishing a firm ground for successful cooperation (Mothersell 2007). According to Gabris & Ihrke (1996, p. 224), a positive atmosphere is very important because it “nurtures collaborative, cooperative relationships where employees assume responsibility for accomplishing work-related objectives voluntarily.
This also indicates greater acceptance of managerial objectives”. However, in this area, the leader should remember about a certain measure of danger as his/her subordinates may start disregarding his/her authority as a leader if the level of communication will be inappropriate with a measure of superficial and flippancy. Still, according to Gabris & Ihrke (1996, p. 225),
Change motivation is important because it involves the crucial interfacing role of agency senior managers in adapting the organization to environmental opportunities and threats. If senior managers are complacent toward environmental flux, initially incremental changes may eventually overwhelm an agency. This could lead to externally directed changes in an agency’s mission, resources, and even survival.
Finally, among the other important skills and capabilities of a successful leader the following ones are to be mentioned: the readiness to take risks and try out new business strategies, programs, and arrangements; and attentiveness to environmental changes within the collective body leading to any possible opportunities, positive or negative developments or threats; an ability to be a good planner taking into consideration all the major developments at the enterprise during any particular period of time in order to fall abreast of an ongoing process of strategic planning and forecasting; high level of interest in the implementation of new technologies on a regular basis in order to keep up with the ever-developing business situation in the world; and finally, good skills in identifying and implementing environmental stimuli.
Leader’s Role in Managing the Organization
Evaluating the role of a leader in the functioning of any organization, it appears that it can be hardly underestimated as all the major processes depend on the leader’s guidance and control. It is important not to confuse the role of the leader in the organization with the one of supervisor and manager as a leader is much more than two of these roles. Still, a good leader is to incorporate the abilities of a supervisor and manager in one’s character including providing oversight and direction, appreciation, feedback, recognition, and training for the employees; along with the ability to run the business process in itself, to solve problems, to have worked under control, and to organize and to administrate the working process and working systems.
According to Endres (2000, p. 5), “if managers don’t align the employees’ goals with the organization’s strategy, at best they produce “random act of improvements”. With regards this, it is evident that without relevant control and careful management any enterprise or organization will certainly fail. In addition, “leaders recognize that creating and nurturing at an organization requires a dramatic shift in decision making and has worked consistently to reorient people’s approach to work” (Lewis, & Caldwell 2005, p.182). Thus, even the organization’s employees work much better when the leader accomplishes his/her productive tasks on a due level.
What Makes a Successful Leader
Evaluating the central characteristics which are important for becoming a good leader, the first one to be mentioned is the very decision to be ahead. The person is to decide whether he/she really wants to be responsible for the work of one’s employees along with a row of technical issues related to the running of any business. The person is to decide whether he/she is ready to provide the due guidance, offer new ways of seeing some important business matters, inspire the team with one’s vision, and direct the course of future development (Lewis, & Caldwell 2005). Such a person should know how to display one’s supremacy in the collective body and oversee in case the situation requires doing so. It is only up to every particular person to decide whether he/she is the “one” chosen for success and great achievements.
Secondly, discipline is to be mentioned among the most important characteristics of a good leader. In this vein, the leader is to know how to restrict one’s own unnecessary wishes and vain pursuits, and how to help his/her team in archiving this important goal. According to Goleman (2000), it often happens that certain individuals possessing a row of important and ingenious leader qualities suffer defeat in this area on the reason of lacking this important character trait. It is very important to know how to control one’s opportune time, and not to waste it on any unnecessary works, and to help one’s subordinates in this important task.
Further, one more important condition for a person to be a good leader is constant learning. A good leader visits specialized seminars on a regular basis where he/she acquires new knowledge, and exchanges positive experience with one’s colleagues in order to become even more skilled and experienced in the most diversified areas including solving problems and anti-crisis management. Numerous illustrations support this fact revealing how vital keeping a leader’s brain “in fit” along with “updating” it with new ideas is (Lewis, & Caldwell 2005).
In addition, there exist some natural characteristics which cannot be acquired elsewhere but they are only given to a person as a precious genetic inheritance. It can be sometimes heard that he or she is born to be a leader; such comments describe a certain person as the owner of excellent inner qualities including charisma, ambition, integrity, dedication, magnanimity, openness, fairness, creativity, assertiveness, positivism, good sense of humor, and the ability to persuade.
Finally, what is also important for being a successful leader is being an exemplary character. The leader is always in sight, and, thus, he or she becomes the target of constant watching. The subjects choose to follow only after the one who is enough dignified, presents an excellent example of success for the others, and demonstrates a deep understanding of all the important matters related to any particular business arrangement. One more important point is to acquire the subjects’ trust as without it no further accomplishments will be possible. Honesty and integrity are also more than important for gaining employees’ preference and the due level of trust among them.
Conclusion
Concluding on all the information related above, it should be stated that leadership in quality requires a lot of effort on the part of any individual deciding to take this important and well-respected position. In particular, a good leader is to know how to demonstrate one’s practical skills in both managing the business process, and solving problems, and in offering directions to one’s subjects. A successful leader is to possess a row of important qualities including charisma, integrity, dedication, magnanimity, openness, fairness, creativity, assertiveness, positivism, a good sense of humor, and the constant desire for self-improvement.
A successful leader is an energetic person capable of guiding one’s subjects inspiring them by means of the use of his/her excellent communication, negotiation, and persuasive skills.
A good leader is to demonstrate the readiness to take risks and try out new business strategies, programs and arrangements; providing oversight and direction, appreciation, feedback, recognition, and training for the employees; along with the ability to run the business process in itself, to solve problems, to have work under control, and to organize and to administrate the working process and working systems; an attentiveness to environmental changes within the collective body leading to any possible opportunities, positive or negative developments or threats; an ability to be a good planner taking into consideration all the major developments at the enterprise during any particular period of time in order to fall abreast of an ongoing process of strategic planning and forecasting; high level of interest in the implementation of new technologies on a regular basis in order to keep up with the ever-developing business situation in the world; and finally, good skills in identifying and implementing environmental stimuli.
References
Endres, Al. (2000). Implementing Juran’s Road Map for Quality Leadership: Benchmarks and Results. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Questia. Web.
Gabris, G. T., & Ihrke, D. M. (1996). Burnout in a Large Federal Agency: Phase Model Implications for How Employees Perceive Leadership Credibility. Public Administration Quarterly, 20(2), 220+. Web.
Goleman, D. (2000). Leadership That Gets Results. Harvard Business Review, 1, 78-90.
Howard, W. (2005). Leadership: Four Styles. Education, 126(2), 384+. Web.
Lewis, J., & Caldwell, B. J. (2005). Evidence-based Leadership. The Educational Forum, 69(2), 182+. Web.
Mothersell, W. M. (2007). Leadership Brand: Developing Customer-Focused Leaders to Drive Performance and Building Lasting Value. Human Resource Planning, 30(3), 48+. Web.
Russette, J. W., Scully, R. E., & Preziosi, R. (2008). Leadership across Cultures: a Comparative Study. 47+. Web.