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Leadership Potential

Leadership Assessment

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Leadership Potential

Business Leadership

Leadership is the ability of a person to motivate other people to do a particular thing. That thing

could be to accomplish a certain goal, or to take negative or affirmative action. The concept of

leadership is of utmost importance in every issue related to the human history. For the years

we have heard how leadership with its efforts has shaped the world. The domain of leadership

is far reached to the historical Nazi movement headed by Adolf Hitler which is an example of a

bloody massacre and a destructive bureaucracy to the exemplary and a sacrificial Apartheid

movement initiated by Nelson Mandela. From the charismatic and change agent leadership

style of Jack Welsh to the evolving yet outstandingly innovative vision of Steve Jobs. Good

leadership is evaluated by the way teams operate and perform in the task assigned to

them(Marshal, Martina & Zaccaro). The issue which raises question “is a leader born” is very

consequential and has been debated by management gurus and leader. Some say that

leadership traits are instilled in a person by birth, while others argue that it is learned thru

experience and in the form of academic and social learning (Marshal, Martina & Zaccaro).

The personality of an individual has a major contribution on the leadership style. That

personality shapes up over the years a person grows. The first element that should be

considered is the traits and behavior a person shows when he or she is a part of the group. This

also connects with the perception an individual has about the world and the people round him.

This is somewhat very important because leadership requires a person to be selfless and

connect with people in a team so that full performance is achieved by the members (Marshal,

Martina & Zaccaro). For example a person who is always in the commanding attitude and
Leadership Potential

forceful will always be bureaucratic in his leadership style rather than being flexible. The mere

fact is that we humans are social animals. There is impossible for us to be independent. We

evolve our behavior, actions and personality through social interaction. Another element that

contributes to leadership is our constant want to climb the social hierarchy. Every person is

different in his need to climb the ladder. Some people are good in getting along with people

which makes then a good team member. They emphasize on teamwork and helping their

coworkers. Others are more of change agents, initiator and always one step ahead. They have

qualities to become leaders. One of the important things that add as a factor to the personality

of the leader is his perception about his own self. The second factor is what other people

mostly those who interact with the person perceive about him (Lee & King).

Organizations are always in the process of analyzing their employees in order to determine who

has the potential to become the leader. Most of the organizations have this process as a part of

the governance. This type of planning adds to the sustainability of the organization. There is a

simple set of skills that determine whether the person has a capacity to handle the organization

and its business. These skills include interpersonal skills, the ability of an individual to interact

with other people (Lee & King). This also relates to the ways through which the individual

maintains healthy relationships with people. The second element that determines the potential

for a leader is intrapersonal skills (Lee & King). These skills include soft skills which relate to

individual one own self. They are the emotional stability, IQ etc. the third element which is

important are the business skills. These skills are related to the planning ability, organizing,

monitoring, technical capabilities etc. these are somewhat very important for a leader because

they bring him to a level form which he can understand the operations of the business. The
Leadership Potential

fourth most important element is the leadership skills. As discussed earlier it is very important

that the person is able to motivate people by using different tactics in order to solve a problem

or to achieve an objective. The good thing is that some of these qualities are acquired by social

learning which means that these skills can be learned also. However the problem is that in

order to learn the leadership skills a person must have some interpersonal skills. The leadership

skills are very easy to learn but the interpersonal skills take time to instill in an individual and

are very hard to learn (Lee & King). The traits that affect the leadership style of an individual are

related to self esteem which is linked to the job performance and the effort an individual puts

into his work. Then the ability of a person to take decision generally as well as on work is a

major factor to become a leader. Furthermore the person should be good is making decisions

under pressure. This is because CEO is the head of the organization. His decisions will result in

the performance of the organization. As discussed earlier, the reputation of a leader is an

important factor in deciding whether the person is capable to become one. People usually look

for positive attributes in a person who they perceive to be their leader. The vision of the leader

is another element that justifies his behavior and leadership style (Lee & King). Good leaders

have a vision that is objective and what defines them is their ability to communicate their vision

to the organization in order to instill that vision as a part of the organization culture (Lee &

King).
Leadership Potential

References

1) Marshall, J.C., Martina, J. & Zaccaro, M. (2000), "Development and evaluation of

cognitive and metacognitive measures for predicting leadership potential", The

Leadership Quarterly, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 135-153.

2) Striker, L.J., Rock, D.A. & (2002), "Assessing Leadership Potential with a Biographical

Measure of Personality Traits", International Journal of Selection and Assessment, vol. 7,

no. 1 pp. 23-25

3) Lee, R. J., King, S. N. & (2000), Discovering the Leader in You: A Guide to Realizing Your

Personal Leadership Potential, pp. 124.125

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