Leadership Characteristics Needed to Influence Consensus of Others

Introduction

One of the important aspects of leadership is the ability of the leader to influence the consensus of others. To influence his or her followers, a leader needs to have certain salient traits. Some of these traits include charisma, servant leadership, commitment, compassion, ability to model high standards, and ability to embrace collaboration.

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First, an influential leader should be charismatic. According to Pathi (2010), charisma is a leadership attribute that makes followers take early and sustained action. Leaders with charisma inspire support and acceptance from his or her followers due to their interpersonal attractiveness. The charismatic leader's ability to influence others is also associated with his or her tendency to communicate high expectation about subordinate performance and to manifest confidence in their subordinates (Griffin & Moorhead, 2011). The charismatic leaders' influential attribute is also linked to their ability to model behaviors that are in tandem with their high expectations. Moreover, their influence comes from their ability to energize followers through the manifestation of excitement, their ability to empathize, to support, and to express confidence in others (Griffin & Moorhead, 2011).

The second important trait of influential leaders is servant leadership. This approach to leadership emphasizes sharing of power between the servant and the leader. A leader who uses this leadership style puts the needs of the followers ahead of his and help them to develop and attain their optimal performance (Ebener, 2010). That is, the leader is more focused on empowering the employees as well as in encouraging them to be innovative. According to Ebener (2010), servant leadership has a multiplier effect. That is, it inspires followers to serve others, to serve the organization, and to serve the community. Additionally, this leadership style motivates the followers, enhances their skills to accomplish a specific task, thus increasing the effectiveness of both the leader and the follower. According to Clegg and Bailey (2008), servant leaders influence their subordinates through their competence in modeling behavior and relationships (Day, 2014).

The third vital trait of an influential leader is commitment. The leader must show commitment to his or her role as a leader, to his work, and towards the development of the followers. Commitment is demonstrated through the ability to meet deadlines, through the development of a clear vision and plan for the organization, and by being a role model to subordinates as manifested through the ability to shine above the followers. Through commitment, leaders are capable of commanding respect from their followers. According to LTL (2012), a leader's strong commitment towards their goals wins acclaim from their subordinates. Consequently, followers are motivated to emulate their leader.

For leaders to influence followers, they must also show compassion. Compassion means caring for others without expecting any favor back. Compassionate leaders connect with followers easily (LTL, 2012). Noteworthy, followers are appreciative of caring and touching leadership. According to Lee (2015), the true measure of leadership is demonstrated through the ability to influence others. Lee (2015) noted that influence could be achieved if a leader embraces love, compassion, and clarity of vision.

Influential leadership is also demonstrated by a leader's ability to model high standards. An influential leader would always want to act as a role model by holding himself or herself accountable to high standards in the way they carry out their tasks as well as in their behaviors. These leaders are aware that their behavior affects those of their followers. Because of this, they set high standards to be followed by the subordinates. Lastly, leaders can influence their followers by embracing collaboration. Apart from influencing followers, collaboration is effective in enhancing engagement and in shaping and cultivating an organizational culture geared towards a common goal and vision.

Personal Changes needed to become an Effective Leader

In order to be an effective leader, I would like to improve on some of my attributes necessary to be an effective leader. First, I plan to work on my communication skills. I understand that a leader cannot succeed in his or her leadership in the absence of these crucial skills. These skills are broadly categorized as verbal or nonverbal communication skills. One of the most critical areas of verbal communication skills that I would like to work on is assertive communication. I believe my current unassertive communication style cannot help me in accomplishing organizational goals in my future workplace.

According to Marquis and Huston (2009), excellent verbal skills are critical to managers and leaders. The most crucial aspect of verbal communication is assertiveness. Marquis and Huston (2009) describes assertive communication as an approach to communication that allows an individual to express himself or herself honestly, directly, and in a way that does not lead to the infringement on other people's rights. When using assertive communication, the speaker expresses himself or herself in a clear and a firm manner using the "I" statements (Nielsen, 2008). The leader's use of assertive communication enables subordinates to understand what the leader wants and where they stand clearly. Additionally, assertiveness allows the leader to gain respect for himself or herself and his or her team. This is because people respect leaders who are honest and can express their feelings non-confrontationally. By being assertive, a leader achieves authenticity in relationships as he or she will be able to share his or her honest reactions with subordinates and encourage them to do the same with them.

I intend to develop my assertive communication skills by following some simple steps. First, I am planning to assess my current communication style using the following checklist: Do I voice my view or remain silent? Do I say yes to more work even when I cannot handle? Am I quick to blame or judge? Currently, the answers to these questions are as follows: I intend to remain silent and rarely air my opinions, I rarely say no when given additional work, and I am too quick to blame or judge. Based on these answers, it is evident that I am non-assertive. Consequently, there is a need for developing this crucial verbal communication skill.

The first step that I will undertake in an effort to develop assertiveness is to practice to use the "I" statements in all my conversations. By using the "I" statements, I will be in a position to let others know what my feelings and thoughts are without being accusatory. For instance, instead of saying "You are wrong," I will instead learn to say "I disagree with you." Also, when seeking for assistance, I will also use the "I" statement instead of the "You." for instance, instead of saying "You are required to do this," I will say "I would like you to help with this." I will also learn to practice to say no using the "I" statement with a valid explanation. In order to achieve these goals, I will practice using the "I" statements on a daily basis. I will also consider seeking the support of my closest colleague. Through a friend's help, I will role-play and ask for feedback. Feedback will assist me in making necessary corrections.

I would also like to work on perfecting my collaborative skills. Currently, I tend to work solitary in most of my tasks. I rarely involve my colleagues in solving problems or in coming up with strategies needed to succeed in a particular task. To nurture my collaborative skills, I intend to cultivate the attributes of collaborative leadership. According to Fouts (2017), collaboration can be achieved in an organization if there is a good environment for effective communication. Fouts (2017) further emphasized that four fundamental skills are needed to foster collaboration: excellent communication, excellent conflict resolution skills, good listening skills, and persuasive skills. Because of this, I intend to improve my verbal and nonverbal communication skills through grasping opportunities to practice these skills and asking for feedback every time I get a chance to practice the skills. Additionally, I hope to improve my conflict resolution strategies through professional training opportunities. Following training, I intend to apply the skills acquired in resolving conflicts encountered in my workplace. Competence in conflict resolution skills will be manifested and evaluated through the number of conflicts that are successfully resolved. Moreover, good listening skills and persuasive skills will be achieved through professional training and chances to practice the acquired skills in a real-life setting.

I would also like to improve my listening skills. Excellent listening skills are essential to understanding other people's viewpoints. According to Tiret (2015), active listening is also useful in talking with others more clearly and with understanding. To be an active listener, I plan to implement strategies for active listening. First, I am planning to improve my attention on the other person talking. To achieve this, I intend to face the other person directly and improve my eye contact skills. To improve my eye contact skills, it is crucial that I maintain eye contact with every member of a group rather than with one person when talking to a group of people. This will ensure that all members of the group keep listening and stay interested in the topic of discussion. Second, attaining good listening skills will require that I ask open-ended questions with sincerity in the tone of my voice. Third, I would like to practice to avoid judging what another person is saying. To be an active listener, it also necessary to repeat back what the other speaker is saying but in one's own words (Tiret, 2015). This is helpful in ascertaining whether or not what was said by the other speaker was heard correctly. I intend to practice these strategies when I am in involved in small group discussions. To track my progress towards achieving this goal, I plan to seek the help of my close colleague who will provide feedback.

How I Will Benchmark Progress towards Achievement of Leadership Skills

I am currently a government employee, a sibling, and a student with the expansive social network. In each of these social relations, I will get a chance to plot different benchmarks. As a student, my progress towards achievement of leadership skills will be through completion of leadership-related courses as well as through attainment of my doctoral degree course. Additionally, my fellow students will be helpful in tracking and monitoring my progress towards achievement of set leadership goals. Specifically, in order to know what my deficiencies in leadership skills and competencies, I will rally a group of close friends and family members to list for me the words that best describe me. I will then request them to write down my strengths and weaknesses. This will enable me to know where to start from in my personal leadership development process. After identification of these weaknesses, I will lay down strategies needed to eliminate them and enroll one of my trusted friends in helping me track the progress towards meeting the set goals.

As a government employee, I am involved in group activities in my workplace. By being part of a group, I will be able to practice the knowledge and skills acquired in my graduate program. Additionally, because I am planning to improve in my areas of weakness, I will be able to enlist my trusted colleague to monitor my acquisition of the skills.

New Routines Needed to Increase Your Leadership Skills

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