Wajiha Zaheer 100858194

Today's Assignment:
1). In your opinion, are great leaders largely the result of traits (genetics, early life
experiences) or skills (acquired later in life through experiences) or a combination of
both? Briefly explain.
While leaders may pass on leadership “traits” to their children does not mean that they
will be “great” or effective leaders, on the other hand great leaders acquire\taught
technical, human, and conceptual skills through experience. A great leader supports the
needs of their followers with their skill, for example a supervisory team lead for a sale
team needs human and technical skill to help grow and maintain their team verses a top
management leader with human conceptual skills. A leader with top management skill
will not be effective for a supervisory level, therefore an effective leader reflects the
needs of their team not for their own personal traits. Personal traits help a leader skill
shine further.
2). In your opinion, what are the 2-4 most important leader attributes? Briefly
explain. Are these attributes traits or skills?
In my opinion, the four most important leader attributes are integrity (honesty is the best
policy), communication (a key part of effective leadership), learning agility (skill to work
in confusion or learning quickly) and respect (can ease tensions and conflict). Integrity
and respect are associated main personality traits of like conscientiousness (integrity
showcases reliability and self-discipline) and extraversion (respect includes being
positive, assertive, and warm). While learning agility and communication that are skills
that are learned through experience.
3). Now, imagine you are a group of senior leaders in a quickly growing technology
company. What are some of the implications of your responses (above) for your
company's approach to building its leadership capacity (i.e., selecting/hiring,
promoting/advancing, and training/developing its future leaders)? Briefly explain.
The implication of belief that leaders are made is a pro in a quickly growing technology
company as it motivates seniors leaders to coach HIPO to become emerging/effective
leaders for the future of the company rather than looking and waiting for HIPO to be
hired plus the additional time to train those employee.
Integrity, communication, respect and learning agility attributes are very important in a
fast pace environment. Honesty and effective communication allow the flow information
to reach and direct teams members, while learning agility makes team members rely on
a “fast on their feet” thinker and helps lead them through confusion or conflict. Lastly a
leader that respect hence values their employees is more likely to be happily received
than someone who degrades them and their work. For example, Trump who is a
competent and great business man is not received happy as he uses racist and
degrading terms that puts off the citizens even through his plans to economically
strengthen America were highly effective (ex. Calling back America soldiers would save
their lives and a huge fortune that can be used to improve other facilities like health
care/education system). Therefore these attributes are something that the senior
leadership should follow suite and train other HIPO in.