Quality Leadership

Leadership is the aptitude to exercise direct influence on a group of people in a bid to enlist and rally their support for the accomplishment of a task or obligated duty. Quality leadership is a crucially important facet in the management of an organization because it focuses on better performance of duties and responsibilities. Effective management requires key leadership qualities that are always inherent in an effective leader. Quality leadership goes beyond mere influence to intrinsic individual traits that are critical in determining the efficacy of a leader. Exceptional leadership styles tend to lean more on both the task and the members directly related to the task. Effective leadership qualities dictate that a leader ought to lead others by example. That is by serving as an influential role model for the rest of the members. Ideally, quality leadership demands that outstanding leaders must work diligently by influencing others to work responsibly towards achieving the organization’s goals. Such leaders are often interested in perfecting their interpersonal relation skills and seek help from others and apart from being ready to accept their mistakes; they are always willing to take responsibility for any outcome of their tasks.

This paper will explicate quality leadership practices that are ideal and crucially significant in ensuring effective management of an organization for achieving the set goals.

Horng & Loeb (2010) affirm that quality leadership goes hand in hand with the integrity of a leader. Integrity is more than honesty and goes beyond skin-deep. Integrity requires an integration of an individual’s inner convictions and value with the outward actions. An effective leader ought to stay true to his/ her personality by doing things that depicts who he/ she really is in the inside as well as the outside. Integrity encourages people to entrust their leader because of the fact that they can rely on their leader.  According to Houston & Dockstader (2000), a leader’s integrity encompasses truthfulness, credibility, and sincerity. It ensures that members will put their trust on their leader and therefore act responsibly because of the belief that their leader makes proper decision. Integrity is certainly the most imperative and crucially reliable tool worth integrating in a leader’s character traits. Integrity restricts one from acting out of self-interest and often requires a leader to act as one says a fact that has given rise to prominent catchphrases applied in different leadership situations as “walk the talk” and “lead by example”.

Another integral element in leadership quality is assertiveness.  Nicholson (2009) opines that this is the ability and aptitude to state clearly and explicitly what one wants or expects others to do. A leader should at all times be assertive in delegating duties and responsibilities to avoid instances of misunderstanding. To get the desired results, a leader ought to employ average assertiveness for if one becomes overassertive or under-assertive, makes a leader susceptible to failure in achieving the preferred outcome. Assertiveness helps leaders to engage their followers effectively in successful performance of their duties and/ or responsibilities. Assertiveness is an equally significant part in effective leadership as it inspires confidence and commitment. Additionally, assertiveness encourages effective communication where information is clearly and effectively delivered to all members within an organization. In so doing, confusion amongst members is evaded as duties and responsibilities are clearly spelt out to each member. Overlapping in duty performance is also circumvented.

In the history of leadership, prominent leaders who successfully incorporated clear and well-laid vision emerged triumphant.  Lester & Kunich (1997) reiterate that vision presents clear ideas of what is to be done in a bid to realize the set goals and objectives. A great leader exemplifies quality leadership skills through providing his/ her followers with clear and well-asserted ideas, which provides a clear and precise knowledge of the goal, how it is to be achieved, and when it should be achieved. Quality leadership demands strategic planning from the leader and by having a clear vision that is well understood by the followers will motivate them to behave and act responsibly. Therefore, it is crucially important to envision for the benefit of the organization in the pursuit of the set goals.

Lastly, quality leadership encompasses the ability of a leader to endeavor to exercise humility. Humility is often a relevant trait to leaders with strong stands and is always decisive as far as decision-making is concerned. Eminent leaders such as Winston Churchill are a perfect example of leaders who exemplified this core leadership quality in making consistent and compelling decisions.  Pasmore (2009) agrees that humility encourages one to avoid instances of feeling inferior in times of failure and always lifts a leader up when he/ she would rather remain disheartened. Accordingly, humility ensures a leader’s willingness and ability to accept mistakes arising from his/ her decision. Humble leaders do not fortify themselves beyond others nor are they vulnerable to any instance of inferiority complex.  Therefore, humility ensures that a leader works effectively with the follower by making them feel part of the task.

In conclusion, the foregoing discussion has explicitly explicated four significant leadership qualities that an effective leader need to embrace. Great leaders are those leaders, who exemplify integrity, are always assertive, humble, and have clearly designed visions. The essay has extensively elucidated that the integrity of a leader is a very vital element in ensuring that both the inner truth of a person and the outside are integrated in a bid to lead others sincerely and truthfully without misleading them. Clearly designed visions will always help a leader to practice appropriate planning techniques while humility will help a leader develop excellent decision-making procedures and consequently ensure hi/her assertiveness, which will help the followers to follow and adhere to their duties and responsibilities towards the realization of an organization’s goals.