Beautiful Blog shared by Asst. Prof. Baljeet Kaur

Qualities of a Good Leader

Leadership is the ability to influence the behavior of a group of individuals. A leader should possess and develop certain traits for exerting his influence on the group for  the best results from the individuals. Leadership qualities can be classified into two categories viz.
(a) Personal Traits and (b) Managerial Traits
(A) Personal Traits
A successful leader should possess the following personal qualities:
1. Dynamic Personality: A leader has to perform various responsibilities. Therefore, he must have dynamic personality in terms of sound health, mature thinking, cool temperament, optimistic outlook, self confidence, good listener, etc. All these characteristics will be helpful to influence the behavior of subordinates
2. Energetic: He should be energetic and strong. It implies that if he possesses strong will power, then impossible things will become easy for him.
3. Intellectual Capacity: A leader should have intellectual capacity to face different problems of business. The various intellectual traits are high degree of intelligence scientific and modern approach, sound judgement etc.
4.Initiative: He should have ability to take initiative and should develop new ideas in order to win co-operation of subordinates
5. Emotional stability: A leader should have balanced temperament. For emotional tranquility, a leader should overcome moodiness, inconsistency and disappointment.
6.Sense of responsibility: A leader must bear the burden of all his decisions upon himself Authority and responsibility go together. A leader possesses authority and he must also be responsible.
7. Character: A leader should be a man of character. He should be a symbol of faultless character and conduct. His actions and attitudes should be morally justifiable. He should also be honest.
8. Courage: He should be bold enough to face any situation. According to Field Marshal Slim, "without courage there are no virtues like faith, hope, charity and all the rest do not become virtues until there is courage to exercise them.
9. Objectivity: Objectivity is a vital aspect of analytical decision making It implies that the decisions of a leader should not be based on any personal bias, rather they should be based on objectivity.
10. Foresight: A successful leader is one who has potential to develop his policies and programs with foresight and logical reasoning.
11. Flexibility: A leader should have flexible mind. He should understand the changing situations and circumstances and should be prepared to change himself according to these changing situations.
12. Integrity: Integrity means moral soundness. It means that a leader must have integrity or lack of favoritism while dealing with others. According to Fredrick Taylor, "Integrity is that straight forward honesty of purpose which makes a man truthful, not only to others but to himself, which makes a man high-minded and gives him high aspirations and high ideals."
13. Empathy: A leader has to respect other persons, their rights, beliefs, values, feelings etc. It implies that he must have ability to understand the things from other's point of view.
14. Knowledge of Human Relations: A leader should have adequate knowledge to deal with human beings. He should establish good human relations with his subordinates by understanding their demands, problems, difficulties arising during work, etc.
(B) Managerial Traits
A successful leader should also possess certain qualities pertaining to managerial and organizing ability, especially with reference to the business of the undertaking. Important traits are
1. Technical knowledge: A leader should be well conversant  with technical aspects of the activities undertaken by the business enterprise. Technical knowledge about the business will enable him to take right decisions on different matters relating to the business.
2. Organizational Ability: (a) He should perform the functions of an intermediary between the top management and working groups. (b) He must have thorough knowledge regarding the principles of time management. (c) He must communicate the organizational policies, procedures, programs to the members of the organization (d) He must have capability to build work culture in the organization, (e) He must develop a climate of co-operation among workers.
Thus, the main aim of a successful leader should be to get best of things done through the efforts of others.
3. Ability to deal with people: Leadership is primarily concerned with managing people. The leader should have insight into psychological problems of human relationships such as aptitudes, emotions, abilities and interests etc. He has to inspire and motivate the personnel.
4. Ability to judge and decide promptly: A leader should possess the ability to judge others. A successful leader is one who understands the matter quickly, weighs the relative worth of alternative courses of action and reaches proper decision which is in the best interest of the business.
In the last, we can say that it is very difficult to get a person enjoying all these qualities. A person enjoying most of these is preferred.