With 20 years in a single organization, I came across many different style and traits of leadership that I was able to identify as something I wanted to emulate or not. We go through pretty extensive leadership training and unfortunately, now that I am starting to transition out, I’m starting to realize that I really don’t agree with much of what we are force-fed. Things like infallibility, segregation, loyalty to people who haven’t earned it and authoritative leadership don’t suit me. Once I started to be myself, I realized what I valued and what got me the best results; showing subordinates that we are human as well.
“Intelligence or intellectual ability is positively related to leadership” (Northouse, 2016, pg. 23). I think the key word here is ability. No one would follow someone who they thought were unable to comprehend the scope of the job or would be able to learn it, but more importantly, I don’t think anyone wants to follow someone who thinks they know it all. I think part of building a strong relationship comes from showing vulnerability, especially when it comes to level of knowledge. When asked a question, if we don’t know, it’s okay. Demonstrating that we are committed to learning and solving the problem can help to build credibility.
This leads me to my next trait that I think goes hand-in-hand with intelligence and was touched upon before, integrity. Admitting that we may not have all the answers but putting in the legwork to remedy that problem are important. More important than that though is doing what we say we will. The old saying that, “we are only as good as our word” still holds true. If followers don’t believe what you tell them, there is no way to repair a loss of trust.
Self-confidence, or “the ability to be certain about one’s competencies and skills” (Northouse, 2016, pg. 24) is a fine line that can be easily crossed. It’s important that followers understand that their leader is confident in what they are doing because it creates comfort on their behalf that they are doing what is needed. Confidence can easily be taken as arrogance if the leader is not careful, which can break bonds or create tension. I think a balance between self-confidence and humility are the best approach. We should never act as if we have all the answers or those we rely upon may not make themselves available when we need them.
Sociability and emotional awareness are different topics but I think they can be discussed together. The awareness part means being able to read and understand the emotional signs that present themselves in the workplace. This is important because sociability is knowing how to approach the situation. Having a bad read and then acting on what was interpreted can create more issues or tension. The goal of sociability is to create pleasant working environments where everyone treats each other with dignity and respect. If someone is having issues at work and a leader fails to key in on it, it can create an environment where the group thinks the leader is out of touch with their people and can drive them away.
At the end of the day, there were a lot more traits throughout the lesson but these were the ones that stood out to me the most because they were all things that I think get glazed over too often. Yes, they are traits of leadership but they are also traits of humanity and allowing followers to connect to the human side of us can build trust, respect and increase the desire to be followers.
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. Los Angeles, Calif.: SAGE.
hss5134 says
I enjoyed reading about your post because I think when dealing with any form of leadership training it is very relatable. You are taught to enforce a set of rules or ideals that you may not always agree with. I have found that when trained for leadership roles I can become a little rigid and very critical of other’s performance. Because you want to perform well in your job you forget your humanity in a way. For example, I was recently in a situation where my boss seemed to have lost her humanity. I came into work even though I was sick because they were short staffed. Unfortunately I did not have a meal break and because I was sick I had to buy special food to avoid having an episode. By the time I bought my food my break was over in two minutes and so I asked if I could just eat my food while working because we are allowed to have drinks on the floor and it was a microwaveable to go cup of soup that you drink rather than eat with a spoon. Rather than saying no I can’t because we don’t allowed you to eat while working, she made a face like I was crazy and blankly said “NO”. In that moment I felt that my boss had no sympathy for me especially because I technically didn’t have to come into work that day. In reality, because she was a newer manager she was probably just worried about her own job security. It is important to show empathy even when enforcing rules as it helps maintain employee’s respect for you as well as their well-being because they know that you care.
Abigail Brock says
Adam,
I enjoyed reading your post for this topic. From what it sounds like to me you may have been in the same type of organization that I worked in for four years. I think the initial point that you made in realizing as you were transitioning out was the level of, “infallibility, segregation, loyalty to people who haven’t earned it and authoritative leadership” (A.J. Swain, personal communication, May 20, 2018) are all aspects that you identified as not being something that you yourself are willing to exhibit. I think that you touched on a very crucial point in regards to a leader’s self-confidence and being able to understand that too much it can come across as arrogance. I experienced this multiple time with my superiors where I worked previously and it was largely in part to the managerial positions they were placed in. They were not emergent leaders but had passed an exam and acted as though this entitled them to a level of confidence that was not found in actuality. Lucky for us both we no longer work in those types of organizations.
-Abigail