What are The Good Qualities of a Leader

 

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Leadership Functions

• Providing vision, values

• Setting objectives, classifying goals and removing uncertainties

• Setting performance targets and standards

• Planning team work, directing, guiding, controlling

• Providing resources

• Developing skills and capabilities

• Motivating employees

• Building cohesive and effective work groups

• Communicating and managing relationships

• Handing discipline, conflict

• Mentoring and role Model.

A. Providing Vision

Vision has to do with ideas of where an organization wants to be in the future. Not all manager’s have vision. Without vision, the people perish. Some people have the capacity to see opportunities and threats in the environment more clearly. We need to develop the ability to scan and analyze our environment and to respond more appropriately.

B. Evolving Values

Values are things considered important by key managers, things manager’s emphasize and do. Result oriented organizations are driven by values. For a number of organizations, core values include leadership, customer satisfaction, quality service delivery, quality staffing, skilled and we’ll motivated staff and profitable operations. Other core values are innovation, integrity and transparency.

C. Planning and Forecasting

Good leaders plan. They work with subordinates to plan their activities. Planning involves deciding on what, when, who, where and how. Planning involves commitment on resources. Planning also involves making assumptions, forecast or projections on the future. Plans have different time horizon. They may be short or long-term. Short time plans tend to be more specific and should lead to the achievement of long time plan. Manager’s and leaders who are soaked into the problems of the present may not plan effectively for the future. This often has a huge price.

D. Control Function

Control is one of the unpopular management functions. People (subordinates ( are somewhat uncomfortable with control. Effective leaders exert control without de-motivating. They set clear standards and make people take ownership for the effective control of their activities.

E. Creating an Enabling Climate

The climate of work may be enabling or threatening. We can’t achieve goals when the climate of work is unhealthy. We cannot regard ourselves as good leaders when we cannot bring happiness to the people that work with us. We cannot create an Enabling environment of work when we compete with our staff. Many factors cause conflict at work. Managers build an Enabling environment by effective communication, interpersonal relations, trust, sense of equity and fair play.

F. Building Teams

Organizations achieve sustained results when people work as teams and are supportive of one another. Team building is an important function of the leader. Team building involves forming teams, setting teams objectives, specifying roles and tasks, communicating, providing leadership and rewarding team members.

G. Empowerment

To empower is to give people authority to act, to take decisions involving their jobs and allow for some margin of error. Empowerment also involves capacity building z ability to develop and use appropriate skills on the job. A number of workers complain of being powerless, of being denied the authority to take decisions. Manager’s in bureaucratic organizations often consider themselves powerless in decisions and in taking appropriate initiatives relating to their jobs.

H. Appraisal of Staff

To appraise is to provide an objective assessment and measurement of performance of subordinates and to share perspective about the job. It is also the process of stock taking, reflecting on performance, providing feedback, and collaborating with subordinates in finding solutions to performance problems. Performance appraisal constitutes a core function that should help performance management but is often undermined by subjective tendencies.