LEADERSHIP TRAITS

AMELIA F. CABRAL

Leadership Trait is an integrated patterns of personal characteristics that reflect a range of individual differences and foster consistent leader effectiveness across a variety of group and organizational situations. There are certain traits that the leader must possess.

First, the physical traits which pertains to the physical stamina of every individual. A good leader must know how to tolerate stress. She/ he should not concern about being overworked.

Second, Emotional Traits this involves self-confidence desire to improve, understand own strengths and weaknesses, and self-objectivity. This also involves self-awareness, empathy, and self-regulation. A good leader must be ambitious in such a way that she/ he has courage and not paralyze by fear of failure. They believe that they have control over own destinies. A leader must also be self-disciplined in developing important skills and most importantly, they are good in managing one’s emotions.

Third is Social, meaning, true leader must be well adjusted in such a way that they can be able to orient and improved their self and denying weaknesses. Their behavior is consistent with values. They understand others and know how to influence them. They decide based on reality and needs of others to, not self-interest. They also persuade others to follow, not rely on authority to get things done. And they approach readiness/resistanceoffollowerstomoveinaparticulardirection,senseswhenthere is dissent or confusion.

Fourth, Intellectual traits, meaning, a leader must learn from experience and adapts change. Under this trait, a leader must develop inspirational image of new product or services. They must have the ability to find meaning and order in ambiguous, uncertain events. They usually learned to experiment until they have objectively assessed a situation and identified a well-reasoned course of action. They must also know how to deal with criticism by listening benefits of projects in advance and prepares to articulate them to others. Lastly, they based decisions and strategies on sound intuitive and rational judgements and accurate of appraisal of the potentialities of their coworkers.

The fifth category is communication, in here, leaders could communicate and the ability to articulate a vision and persuade others. They usually maintain contacts outside and profession that may have certain knowledge and different viewpoints from those within. They don’t depend on only one source of information, and lastly, they are eager to explore new approaches to their work.

Sixth category is Experience which means they could give followers the freedom to take responsibility for own ideas, decisions, and actions. They are committed to collaboration and require everyone to participate in leadership.

The last category is Trustworthy, which means, leaders could care and genuinely concerned with followers’lives and wellbeing. They emphasize and care about implications of others and they are constant in supporting their subordinate. If our goal is to become a leader, we must work on developing our personality traits and always consider the people first.

-oOoTHE AUTHOR IS A TEACHER III AT SAN NICOLAS INTEGRATED SCHOOL