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Coaching and development
Coaching and development
Characteristics of a great leader
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There are many qualities and characteristics a leader must have to be able to succeed in the long run. A leader has an impact on all of their followers. They need to make others feel inspired and make their followers want to lead a group of people someday. Leaders must be determined to achieve their goals every step of the way, and they always need to be strong minded. To be a quality leader one must have many qualities; such as being inspirational, committed to followers in what they are leading, and leading people in the right direction.
First, good leaders need to be inspiring. Inspiring leaders are those who make others feel moved and encouraged to do inspiring things in life and be a leader as well. Jack Lengyel, the coach from the movie We Are Marshall was an inspiration to many. In We Are Marshall all the football players were on a plane flight going to the championships and got in a plane crash. Football players, coaches, parents, teachers all passed away in the tragic accident. The only people that were left on the team were the players that were injured and could not go. Jack Lengyel came into the school and volunteered to be the coach of the new football team that he wanted to create in honor of the ones who have passed. He always motivated the new team of players to do better and to win for the team that is gone, and for them to do their best. He showed that succeeding was not impossible. Before the first game of the season for the new team he had a pep talk at the cemetery where the players of the football team from the crash were put to rest. He inspired the team to go out onto the field and win their first game and made the team players feel strong, motivated, and special. Lengyel started to talk about the team...
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...and needs to be devoted to their followers and dedicated to what they are leading.
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Every Leader is defined by his or her qualities and characteristics. These can determine how effective a leader has become. This statement has been true throughout the history of mankind. However, there are only a handful of specific qualities that can truly determine if someone is an effective leader.
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others” (Welch). Leadership is inspiring others to learn more, do more, and become more. Ineffective fail to possess certain characteristics which effective leaders do. Willingness to help others, selflessness, and strictness; these are the qualities of a both good and effective leader. Without these qualities, leadership would fail and being a leader would mean nothing.
Many definitions exist on what leadership is. Despite the many differences in definitions, they all describe the leader as someone who influences others. Leaders transform individuals around them allowing them to work to their full potential. In order for a leader to be successful they must be knowledgeable, self- confident, and effective communicators. These characteristics will create a positive workplace environment that results in an increase in productivity. Leadership is not defined by titles or salary. Leaders must acquire their skills and continue to improve on them through learning. Good leaders provide a vision and help motivate others to make that vision happen. The leader must be effective and successful in creating a strong institution.
Leaders are made, not born. Whether you lead on the field, in a classroom, within a family, or at work you must build a solid foundation of skills that you can use to lead others to achieve phenomenal results. Emerging trends in the United States alone have a significant impact on what we expect from others. As we, experience a fast-paced ever-changing world there is one character that has remained consistent and necessary. Leadership. Herman Boone, one of the main characters in the movie, “Remember the Titans” said, "Without character, we have no legacy." (http://www.umich.edu/~urecord/0405/Jan24_05/15.shtml) “Remember the Titans” a story about the racial integration of two coaches, a team, and a community. During the course of the
To be a great leader there are many qualities you must have. The hard part is actually knowing what qualities you need, because their are different types of leaders. For example you might be a business leader. These leaders do everything they can to motivate their co-workers, make sure the business stays firm, and also are well prepared for any crises that may occur. Anne Mulcahy the CEO of Xerox surely didn’t know her business was going to undertake many financial barriers, but instead of letting it get her and filing for bankruptcy, she took full responsibility and lead the business towards success by reducing the company’s workforce and eliminating the entire desktop portion of Xeron. According to U.S. News &
There are lot of theories and opinions about what makes a good leader. People who want to become a good leader not only have to have the will to take on the job, but they need to have certain traits and qualities that are characteristic of a good leader. The trait theory of leadership supports this claim that some people are endowed with certain characteristics that make them more capable of being a good leader than others. Many leaders and researchers have come up with certain traits that make people great leaders, whether it is being a leader in a business, organization or a leader of a sports team.
Throughout history, there have been great leaders: civil rights leaders, business leaders, and spiritual leaders who have inspired millions. Leaders and visionaries such as John Lennon or Martin Luther King Jr. fought for unity, love, and made an impact on people through their speeches or songs. Watching these great men touch the hearts of millions has brought out a desire for me to become a C.E.O. and an important leader in the life of others. Not only do leaders have knowledge in politics, in emotional values, and spread a certain message or “vision” to their followers or co-workers, but they have certain special characteristics which make them great leaders or heroes. So, what makes these people different from you and me? Could it be that they are better looking? Perhaps they speak in parables or give great speeches? People have often said to me that a good leader is a person who guides both physically and mentally. Going to the job shadowing program has given me an opportunity to broaden my view on how efficient and effective a good leader can be in the work place. Something that has been shown to me in my many interviews with the board of directors has been that every leader must have the capability to have integrity, listen, a vision, and must be responsible.
Leaders, an individual that people look up to for direction, inspiration, and guidance in life. Passion, influential, reliability, a vision, etc. These traits along with many more, are the things that make leaders great and successful. Everyone has different personality traits that make us capable of being leaders in this world and I learned that throughout this course. Everyone is different, whether good or bad, ethical or unethical, everyone has a leadership style all their own. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader (John Quincy Adams).”
A leader needs to “believe” in oneself and have the confidence that whatever you say will excite and what you do can motivate others. You must be optimistic about what you do, do have some relevance for being in existence. Believe it or not, “leadership begins with you”.
To become a truly effective leader, one must encapsulate the various behaviors related to the aforementioned course learnings in his/her persona and demonstrate such behaviors daily. This course has allowed me to identify four behaviors that all leaders must portray to be effective. The first of which is that a leader must be inspirational. To do so, a leader must set the appropriate vision and direction for the organization and provide a path to achieving defined goals. Additionally, a leader must induce the proper levels of motivation so that each employee has sufficient incentive to work towards the organization’s goals. As discussed in the class, motivation can be accomplished by factors such as rewarding hard work and providing the correct opportunities to employees. While these are motivating in that employees desire to be fairly compensated and to be doing work they deem valuable, inspiration comes more from organizational culture. A leader will be inspirational by setting a tone that appreciates each employee’s contribution, no matter how small in scale it is. Further, employees are inspired when they work collaboratively in a group setting and can capitalize on individual strengths to drive organizational goals.
Traits of a good leader are trustworthiness, respectfulness, honesty, and be stern. When you have leaders that take their role seriously, you can form a backbone to an organization that cannot be broken. You have born leaders and you have trained leaders. Martin Luther King was a natural born leader for the Civil Rights movement. King saw there was something that needed to be changed and he took the steps to change the world.
First we have to ask ourselves, what makes a good leader? Depending on who you ask, that answer will vary. A good leader is someone who is very goal oriented, but bases their goals as a group, not on one’s own desires. A goal oriented leader would use language such as, “We need to get this done,” rather than, “I need this done”. You see this in the novel from Ralph when he is very insistent on keeping the signal fire lit, so as there can be a chance for rescue. Another great quality of a
Perhaps the most important qualities of a leader are passion and motivation. Especially when leading a group for a particular cause, a leader must be personally attached to that cause. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., for example, is a legendary leader because he fought for a cause that directly affected him. had he not been pushing for a personal reason, his actions would not have been as passionate. This would have caused a lack in motivation, another essential leadership quality. A leader faces many roadblocks and opposition and thus, must be motivated to continue fighting and leading. A leader’s attitude and opinions are valued by the group and therefore, if a leader is motivated, the group will be, too. The continued actions and successes, no matter how small, which move the group closer to its goal also help its motivation and drive.
Throughout my life I have encountered the chance to experience position of being a leader. Being part of groups in university for class presentations, being the organizing secretary of my campus fellowship, being a youth leader in my church and the church admin, also being part of a family. Leaders are charismatic, inspirational and trust worthy. I have gained some important qualities of being a good leader through these experiences. Most of the valuable leadership’s characteristics that I obtained and strengthened are: learn to become a better leader every day, how to be a team player, to be a better listener, to be an effective communicator, to have more patience, not afraid of constructive criticism, to be outspoken, and to be a problem solver. Even though I have gained a lot, I still have more things to learn to become a better leader such as being more assertive, being more disciplined, becoming a better public speaker, and learn how to be realistic and not too optimistic. You are a leader if someone else choses to follow you.
Another aspect of leadership includes leadership traits such as being influential and inspirational. There also different contexts of leadership, e.g, leading oneself, leading other individuals, leading groups, leading organizations. Some traits that are often associated with being an effective leader include a measure of intelligence, high energy, self confidence, dominance, and a need for achievement. An effective, charismatic leader must lead by example. That leader must be able to know what is going on, the job or task that is being accomplished, and be able to lead the group into performing the task at hand successfully.