Are leaders born or can anyone learn to be a leader? Below find some common attributes visible in many of todays most successful leaders. How do you and your leadership attributes compare?. Leaders are persons who, by word and or example, markedly influence the behaviors, thoughts, and or feelings of a significant number of their fellow beings. The key to leadership is the effective communication of a story. The most fundamental stories, fashioned by leaders, concern issues of personal and group identity, mission and vision. Leaders exemplify those stories. They convey their stories by the kinds of lives they themselves lead and, through example, seek to inspire in their followers. The ways in which leaders conduct their lives must be clearly observable by those whom they hope to influence. People who do not practice what they preach are hypocrites, and hypocrisy mutes the effectiveness of their stories. A leader is the owner of beliefs, attitudes, and values, and is a practitioner of certain behaviors. It is the responsibility of the leader to help other individuals determine their personal, social and moral codes. Leaders inspire. Common Leadership Types The ordinary leader, by definition the most common one, simply relates the traditional story of his or her group as effectively as possible. The innovation leader takes a story that has been dormant among the members of his or area and brings new attention or a fresh twist to the story. The visionary leader actually creates a new story, one not known to most individuals before, and achieves at least a measure of success in conveying this story effectively to others. The arena is which leadership occurs is the human mind. The leader who would succeed, then, is the one who best senses and delivers what an audience already desires. The leader is the one who most keenly senses the wishes of a potential audience. Most leaders have gifts in the realm of personal intelligence. Nearly all are eloquent in voice, and many are eloquent in writing as well. They have a promising story and tell it persuasively. A generous degree of linguistic intelligence - the capacity to use words well, is the markings of an effective communicator, and perhaps, a promising leader. Leaders have mastery of storytelling. A leader is never fully realized. The relationship between the leader and the followers is typically ongoing, active, and dynamic, one of community. Leadership is never guaranteed; it must always be renewed. Leaders succeed, fail, return and recover, often many times in the course of a career. |
