Leadership and the Qualities of a Leader

Leadership

Leadership is one of those phenomena that are key to many areas of human life. A competent leader plays a huge role in the success of areas such as business, economics, politics, sports, and any target-oriented activity.

Leadership research today is especially relevant as changes occur in society at all levels. For example, in technology - the development of new internet marketing tools and the development of Internet economical space. At the labor market level, globalization and complication of the business structure increased competition.

Therefore, there is a need for leaders of a qualitatively different type, capable of being effective in new market conditions, able to promptly solve problems, work with a large amount of new information.

The Concept and Definition of Leadership

Practice shows that effective leadership provides great opportunities and benefits for the organization of the work process. This is important for determining goals and objectives, for organizing and choosing the best ways to solve various problems.

The nature of leadership is easier to understand when compared with management.

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Being a manager and being a leader in a company are two different things. The manager in his influence on the work of subordinates relies primarily on the official basis of power. This leads to a decrease in the participation of individual workers in the social life of the organization, all participants concentrate on their immediate tasks, losing global vision.

Leadership is based more on the process of interaction in the organization. This process is much more complicated. Unlike management, leadership implies the presence of followers in the organization, not subordinates.

Usually, we call the leaders of those people who can carry away with themselves, engage in a common cause, “charge” for the result. This is the ability to influence without formal levers of power. This is the ability to communicate with people in such a way that they set themselves more and more complex tasks themselves to increase the efficiency of their implementation.

The fact that leadership is a process of interchange and interaction between a leader and his followers is accepted by all theories of leadership. So, general issues of leadership were considered in the works of Blanchard K[4], Kets de Vries M[5], Richard D.[1]

Richard Daft gives the following definition: 'Leadership is a relationship between a leader and group members that influence each other and together strive for real change and achieve results that reflect common goals.'

So, leadership is, first of all, the ability to informally influence: by the strength of the personality, character, charm and the power of confidence in overall success.

Factors of Modern Effective Leadership

Credibility

Confidence in a leader is most acute in difficult critical situations. Many well-known companies such as Samsung, MacDonald's, Apple survived and managed to overcome crises since they were led by powerful, respected leaders. The names of these companies in mostly associates with reliability and big influence. Achieving such a status leads to the best market positions and costumer’s loyalty. These companies are also leaders in introducing modern technologies for interacting with customers and employees.

Teambuilding Skills

Leadership plays a key role in forming an effective team for solving problems on an ongoing basis and the correct functioning of the economy. The ability to rally and direct a team towards a common goal is a hallmark of a good leader. As a rule, the HR department deals with this important issue, however, in some cases, the hiring process takes place through company management, CEO (recruitment for senior positions, in small companies, etc.) Right teambuilding is an important component of the organization of the work process in every economy. The ability to form and organize a team is one of the key attributes of a leader.

Reactivity and Readiness for Change

This item is especially important for leaders of a qualitatively new type, capable of being effective in a competitive market economy.

Life is constantly being updated. Even in a quiet time, tastes, habits, fashion change. And company leaders can capture current trends and are always at the head of trends. In times of crisis and emergencies, the ability to respond to change becomes the determining factor of a leader. For example, today, when the whole world is in the grip of a dangerous virus pandemic, some companies have managed to quickly respond to the situation. They reprofiled their production to today's needs.

So well-known clothing brands such as Bershka, Zara, H&M began to sew the necessary protective equipment (masks, gowns) for doctors and the public. In this way, they demonstrate their social responsibility, as well as the ability to adapt to new economic conditions. While other sewing enterprises close or suffer losses due to the pause of realization of their products, on the other hand leading companies to continue to work. They can receive orders from the state, have tax benefits during this period. And when the crisis is over, surely the name of such a company will remain in the memory of consumers. In the future, this will serve as the best brand advertising.

Important factors also include the ability to lead a team, the ability to inspire employees to work effectively. Also, the leader knows how to properly delegate authority and takes care of the development of employees.

It can be concluded that in a modern fast-changing economy, where changes occur quickly and unpredictably, it is reactivity as a factor of leadership that gives the most important competitive advantage. This leads to commercial success, and employees work with full dedication of strength and ability. They are characterized by a desire to identify new areas of activity, readiness for innovative solutions and social responsibility.

Nowadays, in the context of globalization and the global crisis caused by the coronavirus, leadership potential will be in demand more than ever.

Reactivity and readiness for change - these qualities become central to leaders of a new type that can be effective in a competitive market economy. They are characterized by a desire to identify new areas of activity, flexibility, and forecasting of possible outcomes, willingness to take risky decisions, and social responsibility. To summarize the above, leadership is an extremely important component of the work of any economy, organizations that achieve success. They differ from unsuccessful and mediocre mainly in that they have more dynamic and effective leaders.