What Makes a Good Leader?

What Makes a Good Leader?

Good leaders are made not born. If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader. Good leaders develop through a never-ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience. To enthuse (inspire) your teammates into higher levels of solidarity (teamwork), there are certain things you must know, and, do. These do not come naturally, but are learned through recurrent (continual) work and study.
Good leaders are continually working and studying to improve their leadership skills; they are NOT trying to take it easy. Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the team in a way that makes it more cohesive (unified) and coherent (logical). Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership attributes, such as beliefs, values, ethics, temperament (character), knowledge, and skills. Although your position as a manager, supervisor, controller, etc. gives you the authority to accomplish certain tasks and objectives in the team, this power does not make you a leader, it simply makes you the boss. Leadership differs in that it makes the followers want to achieve high goals, rather than simply bossing people around.
When people are deciding if they respect you as a leader, they do not think about your attributes, rather, they observe what you do so that they can know who you really are. They use this observation to tell if you are an honorable and trusted leader or a self-serving person who misuses authority to look good and get promoted. Self-serving leaders are not as effective because their teammates only obey them, not follow them. The basis of good leadership is honorable character and selfless service to your squad. In your peer’s eyes, your leadership is everything you do that affects their working and their well being. Respected leaders concentrate on what they are, what they know, and what they do.
An important principle of leadership is to know ones-self and seek...

Similar Essays