Leadership competencies Essay Example

through people.The apparent action of leaders account for 70 percent of the view the employees develop as pertains the organizations’ environment. The collapse of a business can be out of ignorance of emotions in the business workplace. Vibrant leadership as well as the real leadership style is significantly a component of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness as well as relationship management, all of which makes up Emotional Intelligence as the most significant leadership competence.

(Ann, 2005).Commands as well as setting paces for employees by their leaders in the workplace climate are rather performance oriented, which for the benefit of the organization, be replaced by a continuous play between visionary, coaching, affiliate as well as democratic styles. They are crucial to development of motivation as well as a reservoir of positivity that unleashes the best in people. (Ann, 2005).A positive leadership competence if it has to serve its purpose has to serve the following; show determination to achieve the most excellent results, focus on the market, find better ways to achieve the intended goals, demand top performance, inspire commitment and develop one self and others.

Leadership competence is essential to helping a company become a leader and brings out numerous vibrant minds incumbent and still existing in the company but whose perception were not pronounced earlier. Leadership competence is essential to keep the company ahead of the competition while allowing the push of manpower ahead to the maximum.Leadership entails far much beyond the concept of commanding authority and giving orders, only for the managers and company executives who have an understanding of building trust a priority. For the purpose of achieving a happy and a productive environment, which

is conducive for all state to take responsibilities for the benefit of the company more efforts should be geared towards raising a working leadership competence.

Today’s companies that excel in business are flexible and open to absorb and implement good ideas.What are Leadership Competencies?Leadership competencies refer to some measurable patterns of behavior that are of crucial importance to leading. The idea depicts knowledge, an understanding as well as a way of thinking and disposition. The process of leadership development must begin at the formative age of youth, and continue in an individual’s lifetime because it is an endless life long process.Purposes of Leadership CompetenciesPerformance expectations are the leadership knowledge, skills, attitudes as well as abilities individuals should possess at various levels all aimed at enhanced mission performance. There are three categories of leadership competencies: self, which is fundamental to successful development as a leader in understanding of self one’s own abilities, including personality, values as well as potential preferences.

Working with others: leadership involves working with others and influencing others to achieve common goals on diverse capacities such as supervisor, mentor, manager, team member, team leader, peer as well as subordinate. Performance: challenges are expected in works’ mission operations whereby leadership competence is a daily duty, which must be applied to meet these challenges.However, most of these competencies overlap categories. Together these leadership competencies are key to success and contribute to the continuous improvement necessary to provide valued service as well as goods delivery to the public.The basic aims of leadership competencies are categorized as follows; bringing change through continued learning, creativity and innovation, building external awareness, being flexible and resilient, service motivation, strategic thinking

and vision leading people through conflict management, leveraging diversity, integrity, honesty as well as team building.

Results are driven through accountability, customer services, decisiveness, entrepreneurship, problem solving as well as technical creativity. Building coalition can be effective through influencing and negotiating, interpersonal skills, oral communication, partnering, political survey as well as written communication. (Lovis, 2000).Ways to Develop a Leadership CompetenceLeadership competence entails a process that is characterized by purpose.

It is a flowing process involving a long span of time whereby a learner moves from a certain state in a situation whereby the learner cannot perform as according to the purpose in description learn is in a position to demonstrate the performance. This transition entails the learning the training involves making of some specific arrangements in the surrounding atmosphere of specific learner with experiences, skills and knowledge necessary towards confrontation and mastering the learning task, by which the learner can undergo a transformation to a different state that warrants the student to attain performance level as is so desired.Leadership development can never be looked at as being one single training course, a one-short-event or an overnight transcendence but rather it must be long-term, continuous, closely chained, systematically organized learning and skill, knowledge, experience-building undertaking. Further leadership competence should not take place in members’ isolation. Peers’ support and encouragement offers a centrically important environment. Leadership is a combination of the group, the environment and the task; forming three dynamic factors that work in combination.

Leadership functions should be performed by several members of the group. Several members are entitled to achieve a set goal, on condition of requirements the situation requires and the available resources, which include

time, people as well as materials required and therefore leadership can as well be considered as a property of the overall group.Emotional IntelligenceThe primal job of a leader is emotional-making employees feel good (inspired and empowered) is a job a leader should do first. Leaders perform best when they stay emotionally connected to the realities of their business and to their teams’ personal goals and needs.

Emotional Intelligence provides insight that are critical for complex organizations to survive the shortcomings of the command-and-control leadership culture.The need to lead and to respond to leadership is innate. Leaders who get their employees emotionally engaged accomplish far more. The use of innate self-awareness helps the leader to be subjected to open criticism. Since one has to be fairly smart to be a senior manager, IQ among top senior managers does vary widely. However, Emotional Intelligence does thus those managers with high Emotional Intelligence will be more successful.

Priming good feeling in employees is the fundamental task of leaders, when the leader makes or creates resonance a reservoir of positivity that unleashes the best. (Daniel, 2002).Emotional Intelligence entails handling one’s emotions well when dealing with others while exhibiting resonance, bring out the best in people by being positive about their emotions. Four dimensions of Emotional Intelligence are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management.Self-awarenessExplicit understanding that one exists as an individual, separate from others with private thoughts, while understanding that other people are similarly self-aware.

It is a unique type of consciousness since it is always present and not sought after, since it is a basis for human trait. People may act differently when self-consciousness is lost.Self-managementImplies to the

methods, skills and strategies at the disposal of a potential leader relevant to help the leader effectively direct some intended activities towards the achievement of objectives. These include goal setting, planning scheduling, task tracking, self-evaluation, self-intervention, self-development; all oriented to an executive and implementation of the policy issues towards the desired objective.

The issue of agreement on alternative choices are achieved which is unauthoritative.Social AwarenessReflects updated knowledge and consciousness of the problems facing individuals in any social structure or social institution. Social awareness has got its individual competencies.Empathy, which is the ability to pick emotional cues, is the main feature of empathy.

The unspoken or partly expressed thoughts, feelings as well as concerns of others are the true meaning of empathy whose end result is to understand people. This quality when in a leader allows the leader to read people’s mind, to respect and relate to people of different grounds as well as be an attentive listener.Organization awareness, which involves the ability to gauge the potential of the organization, helps to understand political forces, determine key power relationships while understanding value as well as culture.Social orientation, which is the desire to assist and serve, helps the leader to provide satisfaction to others, match the leader services and products to meet others’ needs and is always available.Relations ManagementIt is the art of meeting people and benefiting from those relationships through obtaining information crucial to the further growth of the business.InitiativeIt is the readiness to embark on a new venture from a business perspective, ability and tendency to initiate, that means an initiative person can start an action such as raising a proposal and offering or assisting

in a situation without being priory requested.

(Ann, 2005).Self-controlIt involves behaviors to treat issues and circumstances in a way that personal control and power is sufficient to direct control and orchestrate while expecting no interference from external source or any other source of manipulation. The leader becomes the master of concurrent destiny through checking barriers and obstacles that may threaten success. The leader copes with challenges and controls over-emotional responses thus giving the leader a healthy coping and acceptance of personal responsibilities.

It moderates life by accepting the uncontrollable and unchangeable circumstances. The point to be helpless, manipulative, fixing and intimidating others are checked by self-control by detaching oneself from others and keeping relationships in a healthy balance. Through self-control the individual is responsible mature and adult. (David, 1993).Self-confidenceIt is out of self-confidence that an individual trust potential own abilities, have a general sense of control and has a belief that whatever has been a wish, planned or expected is achievable, while these expectations are realistic. The approval of others for satisfaction is irrelevant but rather an individual should risk disapproval of others due to the degree of trust on individuals’ ability.

To develop self-confidence the individual should have personal credit for any trial made, take risks by taking a new experience as a learning opportunity rather than a win or lose occasion, try to do things well through self-talk approach, and evaluate progress achieved independently. To gain confidence of other players is a key way to success and be a source of inspiration of confidence to audiences, peers, bosses, customers and friends.It is the single competency ingredient to make a difference between success and

failure. This leadership competency aids a leader towards presentation in an assured and unhesitant manner, ability to stand out in a group as well as acquire the opinion of being the most capable in the group. (Lovis, 2000).Accurate Self-assessmentImplies the ability to recognize and identify inherent inner resources, abilities and limits and mainly entails identification of potential strengths and limitations.

Individual may yearn for reciprocative feedbacks and new perspectives about individuals and a motivation for an endless learning and self-development while simultaneously targeting personal change environments. The possession of this leadership competency enhances the individual have a sense of human, be aware of personal strengths and limits as well as open to feedback. (David, 1993).CommunicationGetting and giving information is possibly the most significant leadership competency. No progress can be achieved without communication.

To be identified with a group and acculturated to the groups norms helps maintain membership. Dealing with group members’ knowledge, skills as well as abilities is healthy and allows tackling the problems.EmpathyAs a form of leadership competence is a very crucial as well as an important talent needed by any leader. It refers to the ability to appreciate as well as understand the needs of others. It is double-sided in that it encompasses the ability to uncover needs and then on the other hand how these needs are sensitive.

An empathetic leader when in a group is helpful, willing to face problems as well as has a variety of problem solving tools at his disposal. (Kouzes, 2003).Other Leadership CompetenciesOther behaviors that cultivate positive leadership qualities include cheerfulness, enthusiasm, alertness, integrated character, deliberate control of will, taking risks as well as absence of suspicious

anxiety. (Kouzes, 2003).Greatest Challenges – Most Significant Leadership CompetenceIn developing leadership competencies there exists a biggest challenge in the development. It is also the most important leadership competence.

The leadership competence that exhibits the greatest challenge and the most important is emotional intelligence owing to its weight and influences on the orientation of leadership in the workplace and any other social cultural institutions. To cultivate the emotional behaviour of individuals in a group is very crucial towards motivation of any one group. It poses great challenges to accumulation of all details contained in this leadership competence since the intellectual brain capacity is in use. Not everybody has an equal intelligence quotient with another whereas the results of individual development of the leadership competence is expected to produce equivalent outcomes.

On the other hand, individual group members do not have the same mental make-up and therefore they are expected to be handled in different skilled emotional ways to achieve the right motivational effects. It therefore requires a combination of the learning acquired skills as well as the inherent IQ of the respective learner.DiscussionA leader is usually centrally focused as the prime guide of any organized group having a goal to achieve. A leader is therefore entitled to have knowledge, skills as well as abilities necessary for management because man is a social creature. Leaders’ share a definite set of skills called competencies since leadership is a skill, ability as well as competency that can be acquired.

The elements of leadership behavior exist in a state of isolation as specific learning. They are programmed in a systematic order and learning them is an extended long-term process of development.

The development of a single leadership shill requires sufficient time so as it can affect the desired behavioral change towards the respective leadership competence. Competencies exhibit a cluster of about eighty aspects of knowledge, skills as well as attitudes and therefore a plan as well as a design is essential for an individual to acquire the desired leadership competencies, which is unachievable by accident.ConclusionThe changing globalization calls for very high levels of output. The current workplace environment calls for the most efficiency use of available resources.

Whereas most of the possible resources such as raw materials, capital and equipment can reach the maximum extent of supply, manpower as a resource can assume a flexible orientation. The only important factors are raising motivation standards of the potential employees achievable by the acting leaders of the team.For these leaders to afford the right motivation and the right working relationships knowledge, skills and experiences are of vital importance. Due to the fact that all human beings are biologically different both in anatomy and in genetics there is a need for standardizing the personal leadership capabilities.Leadership competences have been very effective tools towards getting the solution towards this disparity. Their significance has been appreciated in bridging the gap between the ever-increasing human population in the globe and the ever-decreasing availability of resources.

Man needs to survive despite the adversaries of nature and every new technology that would prop this scenario is highly appreciable and cherished. ReferencesAnn M. Barker, Dori Taylor, Ph.D.

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