Leadership can be best described as the art and ability to guide a group of people and their efforts so as to achieve a common goal. An integral part of leadership involves inspiring others to act in the interest of the organization(Business Daily, n.d.). A leader can thus be surmised best as the director of efforts and actions in an organization while also being a guide, mentor and an inspiration for subordinates within the organization.
While leaders differ across industries and individually, there are some common traits that are common with all great leaders. For one, most great leaders are visionaries who are not only leaders in their organizations but also in their industries. Others such as Jeff Bezo not only found companies (Amazon) but are responsible for disrupting the industries they operate in (ecommerce, cloud computing). This is the one trait that sets apart great managers from great leaders despite the fact that one of the manager’s roles is being a leader.
Most great leaders are normally critical thinkers and always great problem solvers. Great leaders must be able to synthesize information and come up with solid plans and strategies. They must be great problem solvers to be able to handle the different problems that face an organization, especially those that threat the future of the company. To be truly great, such leaders usually rely on critical thinking. A great leader and proponent of critical thinking and thinking from first principles is Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla (Hoffman, 2016). Both companies are a great example of thinking from first principles and relying on critical thinking in decision making.
Critical thinking is important since one of the dangers of being a successful leader lies in one believing in their infallibility and subordinates saying what they think the leader hopes to hear as opposed to the truth. Truly great leaders encourage candid communication and rely on hard facts and thinking critically and objectively whenever possible when making decisions.
Great leaders are great motivators and engender inspiration in others. This trait is responsible for the success of such leaders in being able to lead and guide others. They also typically mentor others either directly or indirectly by serving as their role models. Such leaders include Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Warren Buffett and Andrew Carnegie.
There are also some traits that are less admirable in some leaders. In their quest for success, some leaders are less than scrupulous in their dealings. Unethical leaders are not only toxic to their organizations but also hurt others, the economy and the world at large. Some greatr examples of such leadership are the Enron pyramid scheme and the Volkswagen carbon dioxide emissions scandal (Irving, 2016). Some of the illegal and unethical practices such leaders might engage in include corruption, fraud and sometimes even crimes like intimidation.
While leadership is an integral part of a manager’s role, leadership does differ significantly from management. Given that unlike management leadership cannot be taught, its development and enhancement should be encouraged at all levels of the organization. As a matter of fact, leadership should be coached and mentored from an early age to ensure the next generation of great leaders. The importance of this cannot be overemphasized given that leaders are truly responsible for a better, or worse, tomorrow. After all, it is harder to mold leaders compared to creating a manager.
References
Business Daily. (n.d.). Leadership. Retrieved from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/leadership.html
Hoffman, J. (2016, September 15). First principles and the art of thinking like Elon Musk. Retrieved from https://medium.com/the-mission/first-principles-and-the-art-of-thinking-like-elon-musk-98658bb36569
Revealed: How VW designed the greatest scandal in automotive history. (2016, July 19). Retrieved from http://www.thedailybeast.com/revealed-how-vw-designed-the-greatest-scandal-in-automotive-history
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