Leadership Essay

Table of Contents

1.0Introduction22.0Evaluating Leadership32.1Emotional Intelligence42.2Narcissists Leadership42.3Authentic and Focus Leader53.0Putting it together74.0Reference7

1.0 Introduction There are divergent perspectives of what attributes a leader should possess, what qualities make one leader blossom and another wither away, why one leader is considered a strong leader and another is considered a weak leader. What makes certain leaders highly adorable, inspire loyalty, stimulate employee commitment, consider trustworthy, and instils hard-work while others of similar qualities, vision or strategic view are unsuccessful? Probably, highly effective leaders have unique innate characteristics - a kind of sixth sense, as in the theory of natural born leader. Conversely, behaviour theory makes us understand that great leaders are made not born - people can be trained, coached, mentored and tutored to become a leader.

The attempt to identify key distinctive personality traits or capabilities synonymous to a most highly effective leader results in the postulation of varieties of leadership concepts. Leadership theorists tell us that personal styles of most successful leaders vary; some leaders adopt autocratic behaviour while others embrace democratic or even laissez-faire leadership style. Further studies shows that certain personality traits are unique to most effective leaders.

Goleman (2003) lets us know that most of the highly effective leaders have what he called emotional intelligence. In this sense, an ideal leader possesses emotional intelligence which is considered the prerequisite to leadership effectiveness, a learned capability, not inborn. On the other hand, George et al. (2007) reminded us that reading a leadership cookbook and emulating all the capabilities outlined in the book cannot make you an effective leader. A similar opinion was shared by Henry Mintzberg, when he said, leadership is like swimming; it can't be learned by reading it. Neither will imitating someone make you an authentic leader, leadership surface in the story of our life.

Nevertheless, the message is clear in the work of Ancona et al. (2007), Only when leaders see themselves as incomplete, will they be able to make up for their missing skills. A good leader positions people well, and discovers what they are good at. He/she's not oblivious of his/her surrounding, he/she's self-aware. Goleman (2013) placed attention on the centre stage, resonating attention as the building block of leadership skills, if mastered, you will be in command of your company. When attention is focused on self and others, a focused leader can filter out distraction from subordinates because they are aware of how others see them and understand what others need from them.

A leader nurtures and coordinate the activities of others, and builds trust at all levels of the organisation to succeed. However, lack of self-awareness and ignorant leadership are strong elements in a recipe for failure. A leader needs to be culturally intelligent, and to develop cognitive knowledge of the surrounding especially when pushing through transformation as in the case of Lean implementation. Leadership is the starting point in achieving a state of perfection in the organisational Lean journey, good leaders understand their people, customers and the market the company operates.

This writing aims to synthesise specific leadership articles recommended in the course-work to identify definitive traits of effective leaders and articulate a definition of leadership.

2.0 Evaluating Leadership Leadership is simply defined as someone whom other people follow. He/she is tasked to direct attention, have a great vision and inspire his/her followers. Most of all, to hold the position of power, and have authority over the followers. Leadership is the utmost important thing in the life of any company, the success or failure of the company is at the hand of the leadership. Leader has to inform right behaviour that will lead to high performance, and create a culture island that will value employees and the customers. However, how many times have we seen a leader that send the company to crisis mode due to arrogance, ignorance, and overestimation of themselves which eventually leads to the demise of the company. If such a leader is not stopped in time, he/she will self-destruct or derail the organisation to ruin. We all witnessed the Enron scandal of 2001, in which the leadership cultivated an unhealthy culture that led to the demise of the company. This mistrust, greed and dishonest culture caged the leadership in prison.2.1 Emotional Intelligence The work of many leadership researchers asserted that most of the highly successful leaders have emotional intelligence. Goleman (2003) makes us believe that emotional intelligence distinguishes superior leaders from their peers but is also the predictor of strong financial performance. In his work, he identified five components of emotional intelligence; 1) Self-awareness, 2) Self-regulation, 3) Motivation, 4) Empathy, and 5) Social skill, which correlates to high performance. Researchers demonstrated that emotional intelligence can be learned with sincere desire and effort, though it is not easy. If it was so easy many leaders would do it, not by reading a book, going to seminars, attending classes or educating oneself, but it can be done with enthusiasm, determination and persistence. A high degree of emotional intelligence is an ingredient to high productivity in the workplace, and the higher the rank of the star performer in the company, the more emotional intelligence capabilities show up as the main reason for his/her effectiveness.However, a gullible leader will stereotype emotional intelligence with an assumption that a dose of it will dramatically improve performance. Pessimistically, the people with emotional intelligence are not considered to have the best analytical skills or have the strategic intelligence of the narcissist leaders. They are best known for making impulsive decisions rather than relying on facts, hard data, logic and reasoning. In some instances, they are considered a weak leader that can be manipulated or taken advantage of by their people and the subordinates. For instance, a leader that was emotionally attached with his/her team members may unconsciously allow employees to use feelings and problems as excuses for mediocre performance or to avoid duties by concocting sympathy inducing lies. How many times has an emotionally intelligent boss tolerated under-performing staff because the perpetrator has a mortgage and children.

Balancing emotional intelligence with a small dose of narcissistic personality traits, in my view, is the recipe for a highly effective leader.2.2 Narcissists LeadershipMaccoby (2000) talks of the differences between what he termed productive and unproductive narcissism. A productive narcissist's gifted charm, eloquent, oratory and rhetoric traits are strengths that show the ability to attract followers and draw people along. Narcissist leaders by nature are not good team players because of their independence, self-absorption, self-reliance, and aggressiveness. Even their good virtues can be a double-edged sword; if channelled positively, it can be a vital ammunition in the leadership armoury. Channelled negatively, it becomes a perfect tool to con, deceive, mislead, and exploit people. To exemplify a companys Lean journey, a leaders ability to charm and persuade others can help to quench resistance to change or convert doubters, though there should be an element of trust, which narcissistic leaders lack. Desire for power, control, and command of the people is what actually drives narcissists to seek leadership positions because people who possess narcissistic traits are considered natural leaders. A narcissist leader considers him/herself a complete leader without an iota of weakness; a flawless self-made person with a multitude of strengths. Such arrogance, egoism, self-centredness, and overconfidence can sometimes make a subordinate set up a leader for a free fall. I personally bear the scar of working for the most horrible, clueless, deceitful narcissist leader I have ever come across. I noticed that self-absorption, delusion, and self-deception can push a narcissist leader to unhealthy practice. For instance, my former manager would psychologically bully and intimidate his team members to get his way, in some instances, he would shout at the top of his voice to resonate his ideas. There was not one improvement idea sanctioned in the team, you only needed to listen to him, and him only. His lack of empathy, devaluation of other peoples contribution to the team, and continually seeking adulation where he deserved none made me dislike him. Having said this, an interesting question popped into my mind. Are narcissist personality traits good or bad for a leader to have? A different situation calls for different personality traits to deal with it successfully. A small dose of narcissist personality traits might be necessary for a leader to survive in the modern business era. A narcissist leader's strategic intelligence, innovative drive and creative mind is critical to business success continuity. The late Steve Jobs, the former Apple CEO is one of the most admirable narcissist figures in the world of business for the great impact he has had on our world. His biographer tells us that he was obsessive, and the relentless pursuit of a competitive edge made him arrogant and ruthless. Of course, the manipulation, bullying, scorn, disrespect, arrogance and hostility of a narcissist boss is not acceptable in the work place, to survive them you must learn to play the office game. 2.3 Authentic and Focused LeaderLeadership needs to get more control over their attention, and focus on what really matters while filtering distractions. Goleman (2013) urged leaders to cultivate a triad of awareness- inward focus, focus on others, and outward focus. When a leader focuses on himself- he gets in touch with the inner self which allows him/her to concentrate 100% attention. He/she listens and accepts inner voices to inform his/her decisions as they naturally come to him/her. A focused leader relies less on hard data to make decisions, they let their intuition guide them when making a decision. On a personal ground, if I listen to my inner voice I hardly make mistakes. Self-awareness subjects us to the realisation that were incomplete, we have weaknesses and strengths, and our capabilities are limited. By articulating this, you are able to know who you are, what you are, and understand how to develop yourself as a leader to serve others effectively. Such commitment to developing oneself makes us authentic, to be who we are, not trying to emulate somebody else. Knowing we are incomplete helps us to create cross-functional teams whereby people complement one anothers strength to make one another's weaknesses irrelevant. By being authentic, we are the same person to others as we are to ourselves.By focusing on others, you are able to emotionally connect to your team, understand their view, know why they thought what they did, articulate what works for them and reason with them. It is only by knowing how to love oneself, we know how to love another person. If you dont understand your own feelings you cannot understand the feelings of your team members. Self-awareness enables you to sense what people feel and need from you. By understanding your subordinates' inner world, you can be empathetic with their shortfalls and help them during difficult periods knowing they have a shoulder to cry on. You create a boss-subordinate bond, a sense of team camaraderie, a brotherhood, a sense of commitment and connection within your team, this affiliation is an essential element of effective teams. When team members feel a sense of connection with their leader, they will work their heart and soul for that leader. Disconnection between the leader and the team members, with a leaders ignorance, ruthlessness, psychological bullying and an insensitive ego, sometimes frustrates subordinates to the extent he/she wants the leader out. Leaders that focus on others cultivate a culture of togetherness.By focusing outward, a leader must not just understand oneself and others, but must understand the larger system that shapes and impacts our life and the organisation. Leader awareness of the macro-environmental factors (such as Political, Economic, Social, Legal, Technologic, and Regulatory etc.) helps the leader to build a defence mechanism against external competitive forces that may threaten the organisation's existence. Understanding of the larger system, enables the leader to come up with an effective strategy that will shape the organisation's direction and competitiveness. Microsoft's past CEO's failures to focus outward, to seize the opportunities presented by the larger system in the technological business have left the company behind to lead major technology development of modern era, such as cloud, mobile, social media, internet, 3D printing etc. An outwardly focused leader sees the opportunities miles away and captures the moment with a definitive strategy that will catapult the company to new horizons.3.0 Putting it together Leadership is not inborn but in our story of life, it is not something we can learn from a leadership cookbook, but a leader can be mentored and coached. Review of the leadership literature shows that there are no distinctive traits, characteristics or styles of the highly effective leaders; the personality styles of superior leaders vary. Effective leaders excel not just by technical skill and smartness, but by connecting with people he/she leads using emotional intelligence such as self-awareness, motivation and empathy (Goleman, 2003). Emotional intelligence can be learnt through hard work and commitment. However, adaptation of a particular leadership style to another makes a leader unauthentic. Only when a leader has accepted that they are incomplete, they can compensate their missing skills with the skills of others. If you are honest and trustworthy, people will accept you for what you are, a leader needs to be him/herself, not trying to emulate somebody else because leadership has many voices. After all, some leaders are self-aware, others are self-absorbed, and some are empathetic while others lack empathy. Narcissist leaders are motivated by their need to grasp power and admiration rather than have empathetic concern for the team. Leadership means many things to many people, and has multitudinous meanings and definitions. The discussion so far shows that a leader must have a follower to be considered a leader, he/she needs followers to achieve goals and objectives. The leader motivates, nurtures, inspires, coaches and bring together the skills needed to build a highly effective team. For the purpose of this written work, leadership is defined as the art of influencing others to achieve a goal.

4.0 ReferenceManzoni, J. F., & Barsoux, J. L. (2009). Are your subordinates setting you up to fail?.MIT Sloan management review,50(4), 43-51.George, B., Sims, P., McLean, A. N., and Mayer, D. (2007). "Discovering Your Authentic Leadership."Harvard Business Review85, no. 2.Ancona, D., Malone, T. W., Orlikowski, W. J., & Senge, P. M. (2007). In praise of the incomplete leader.Harvard Business Review,85(2), 92-100.Maccoby, M. (2000). Narcissistic leaders: The incredible pros, the inevitable cons.Harvard Business Review,78(1), 68-78.Goleman, D. (2013). The focused leader.Harvard Business Review,91(12), 50-60.Goleman, D. (2003). What makes a leader?,Organizational Influence Processes (Porter, LW, et al. Eds.), New York, ME Sharpe, 229-241.

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