Some Essential Leadership Skills to be a Good Leader

Good leadership skills are an essential thing to be a good leader so, we discuss here some leadership skills which are essential for a good leader.

Table of Contents

Good leadership skills

Traits Approach

There is some basic trait or set of traits that existed that differentiate a leader from non-leaders. Researchers thought that leadership traits might include:

Intelligence
Assertiveness
Above-average height
Good vocabulary
Attractiveness
Self-confidence
Similar attributes

Behavioral Approach

LPC theory
Life cycle theory ]Path goal theory

Contingency or situational approach

Positive and negative leaders
Autocratic, consultative, and participative

Emerging theory

Substitutes and enhancers
Self and Super leadership
Coaching

Traits Approach Leadership

Successful leadership depends more on appropriate skills, action, and personal traits.

Technical skill
Human skill
Conceptual skill

These are discussed below:

1. Technical Skill: Technical skill refers to a person’s knowledge or ability in any type of process or technique.

Examples: Skills learned by accountants, Engineers, Word processing operators, toolmakers.

Technical skill is the distinguishing feature of job performance at e operation and professional levels, but as employees are promoted to leadership responsibilities, their technical skills become proportionately less important.

Managers increasingly depend on the technical skills of their subordinates in many cases they have never practiced some of the technical skills that they supervise.

2. Human Skill: Human skill is the ability to work effectively with people and to build teamwork. No leader at any organizational level escapes the requirement for effective human skills.

It is a major part of leadership behavior. Lack of human skills has been the downfall of many managers and CEOs.

3. Conceptual Skill: Conceptual skill is the ability to think in terms of models, frameworks, and broad relationships, such as long-range plans. It becomes increasingly important in higher managerial jobs.

Conceptual skill deals with ideas, whereas human skill concerns people, and technical skill involves things. Analysis of good leadership skills helps explain why outstanding department heads sometimes make poor vice presidents.

They may be using the proper mixture of skills required for the higher-level job, particularly additional conceptual skills.

Situational Aspects of Leadership

Successful leadership requires behavior that unites and stimulates followers toward defined objectives in specific situations. All three elements are- Leader, Followers, and Situation. These variables affect one another in determining appropriate leadership behavior.

Leader: Skilful performance in current roles unlocks the door t future leadership opportunities. By contrast, many people fail in their jobs, not as a result of any skill deficiencies, but because they lack followership skills. These skills help employees support their current leader and be effective subordinates

Good leaders should never forget what it is like in the trenches. Many effective leaders remind themselves of the importance of followership roles by periodically spending time visiting their stores, working a shift in a plant, and doing other things that remain in contact with first-level employees.

Follower: With a few exceptions, leaders in organizations are also followers. They nearly always report to someone else. Even the president of a public firm or non-profit organization

Upward
Downward

Leaders give something to their superiors and employees; they need validation from higher authority as much as they need support from followers. In formal organizations of several levels, the ability to follow (dynamic sub-ordinances) one of the first requirements for good leadership.

Being an effective follower is a smart ground for future leaders, a place where employees are closely observed to see if they exhibit potential for leadership. Followership behavior includes the following:

Not competing with the leader to be in the limelight
Being loyal and supportive, a team player
Not being a “yes person” who automatically agrees
Acting as a devil’s advocate by raising penetrating questions
Constructively confronting the leader’s ideas, values, and actions
Anticipating potential problems and preventing them
Good followers need to succeed at their own jobs while helping their managers succeed at theirs. At the same time, effective subordinates can also prepare themselves for promotion by developing their conceptual and good leadership skills.

Situation: It is evident that leadership is situational. In one situation, action “A” may be the best cluster of leadership acts, but in the next situation, action “b” will be best.

An organization’s leaders fit a standard pattern that will suppress creative differences and result in inefficiency as well because many square pegs will be trying to fit into round holes. Leadership is part of a complex system, so there is no simple way to answer the question, what makes a good leader?

Sometimes, leaders must resist the temptation to be visible in a situation. even though good leadership involves a set of behaviors, it should not be confused with mere activity when activity is not needed. Aggressiveness and constant interaction with others will not guarantee good leadership.

At times the appropriate leadership action is to stay in the background keep in pressures off the group, to keep quiet so that others may talk, to be calm in times of chaos, to hesitate purposefully, and to lay decisions.

At other times a leader must be more:

Decisive
Directive
Controlling

The key task for a leader is to recognize different situations and adapt to them on a conscious basis.

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