Leadership focuses on ever-evolving requirements of individuals and influence them in order to achieve common objectives. Many experts have provided different definitions of leadership which provides that the topic is open to interpretation. In the 21st century, various factors such as globalisation and technological advancements continue to transform the industries and their marketplaces. Due to fast changing industrial environments, arising and existing leaders face new market challenges which influence their business. Various traits are necessary for modern leaders in order to ensure that they are able to address modern market challenges which negatively influence a company’s operations. In the 21st century, many leaders have shown the qualities of successful leadership approach which assist them in efficiently managing their business and gain competitive advantage over their competitors. This report will focus on examining and identifying various key traits of leaders that are necessary to be possessed by modern leaders in the current market environment. Further, the report will evaluate examples of various modern leaders and their traits and understand how they utilise such traits to generate competitive advantage in companies.
The definition of leadership and its meaning has changed and evolved throughout time; many factors have influenced the meaning and definition of leadership such as culture, race, people, organisations, and time. Many experts have provided different definitions of leadership in different literatures throughout time. Though the definition of leadership has changed due to various factors, a larger number of key concepts of leadership are recognised by people accurately reflects the role and influence of a leader. As per Schein (2010), a leader is defined as a person who performs activities of assessing, selecting, training and influencing one or more followers. A leader uses skill diversity during adverse and complex situations to provide various solutions that assist in the achievement of a common objective. Northouse (2017) provided similar views on the topic of leadership; he further added that leadership is a process. He provided that the term “process” implies that a leader influences a larger number of followers and such followers also influence the leader. Northouse (2017) mentioned that leadership is not a linear or one-way event; instead, it is an interactive event between leader and his/her followers.
Conway and Coyle-Shapiro (2012) provided a similar approach relating to leadership; they stated that 21st-century leaders are required possessing various types of skills which assist them fulfilling their obligations and allow them to gain trust and loyalty of their followers. Effective leadership skills assist the achievement of organisational objectives which improve a company’s performance and increase its profitability. As discussed above, there are varying interpretations of leadership which are provided by different experts. Various authors have provided different definition of effective leadership based on a set of qualities that leaders possess. Western (2013, p.2) stated that while understanding leadership, the definition may be based on what a person is looking for and from where he/she is looking. The definition of leadership is based on different perspectives of people because it is many things to many people. A single leadership style is not suitable for different organisations, and each successful leader has shown different leadership traits that makes them effective. Successful leaders have proved that there is no particular definition of leadership and each person has different perspectives towards leadership definition.
Many people have common perspective towards leaders that they are born with natural talents; many people use statements such as “he/she is born to be a leader”. The ‘Great Man Theory’ was significantly popular during the 20th century; many experts suggested that people have special inborn qualities and characteristics which assist them in becoming effective leaders (Hoffman et al., 2011). Previously, people believe that leaders are heavenly beings or Gods who are born with special characteristics that allow them to become successful leaders. However, by the mid-20th century, the concept of leaders as a heavenly being was questioned by researchers. Many experts challenged the concept of leaders being “Gods” and provided that there are various universal leadership traits that most successful leaders possess. The scientists analysed and measured the leadership qualities of successful leaders to provide that leadership is a skill rather than inherent quality (Chemers, 2014).
The “Great Man Theory” was mentioned by many scholars during the 20th century before they started believing that there are many rigorous academic characteristics of leadership traits that are possessed by successful leaders. The study conducted by Jung and Sosik (2006) on charismatic leaders provided that they possess various traits which makes them effective such as engagement with followers, self-monitoring, motivation through social power, and encouragement for self-actualization. Many other experts have provided their study that links personality traits with effective leadership style (Harris et al., 2013). These studies prove that personality traits play a crucial role in building effective leadership approach of a leader. Most of the scholars highlighted the importance and requirement of traits in building effective leadership approach. In recent years, the theory of leadership traits has grown popular among modern organisations.
According to Germain (2012), there are six main traits of leadership were given by Shelley Kirkpatrick and Edwin A. Locke in their study which includes motivation, integrity, cognitive ability, drive, confidence and task knowledge. Many experts also provided that social ability is another crucial characteristic which is necessary for modern leaders. As per the study of Zaccaro, Kemp, and Bader (2004), twelve main characteristics are necessary to be possessed by 21st-century leaders which include emotional stability, agreeableness, cognitive abilities, self-monitoring, problem-solving, intelligence, emotional, social intelligence, extraversion, openness, motivation, and conscientiousness. Ancona (2005) simplified these leadership traits by reducing their number of four; these four traits highlight most of the other characteristics that are necessary to be possessed by 21st-century leaders. These traits include honesty, adaptability, inspiration, and self-confidence.
As per the research conducted by Northouse (2017), there are five core leadership characteristics are necessary to be possessed by modern leaders in order to succeed. These traits include self-confidence, integrity, sociability, intelligence, and determination. As from above discussion, it can be seen that many leadership traits have remained same in most of the studies. Many researchers just rephrased the words in their studies, but despite varying consistencies, the general characteristics of leaders remain same in different studies (Lloyd-Walker and Walker, 2011). As per Holt and Marques (2012), the characteristics such as integrity/honesty, self-confidence, drive/determination and intelligence/cognitive ability remain same which can be considered as essential qualities that differentiate successful and failed leaders. These traits assist modern leaders in successfully managing there corporations which provide them competitive advantage and increase the profitability of their firms.
The leaders or CEOs of 21st-century corporations which emerge in the industry display excellence in various personality areas such as knowledge, social responsibility, skills and personal awareness. The successful leaders differentiate themselves from others based on various aspects which prove the requirement of leadership traits in effective leadership approach. According to Northouse (2017), the primary trait is intellectual ability or intelligence of the leader; it is referred as high mental reasoning than compared to others but not high enough to alienate others. Otazo (2006) provided a similar concept regarding the intelligence of leaders which provide that the leader should be able to process a large amount of information quickly and must handle multiple tasks at once. ‘Steve Jobs’ is a good example of a successful leader who displayed intelligence as a leadership trait.
Steve Jobs was the CEO and founder of ‘Apple Incorporation’, and he died in 2011. Apple is currently world’s most valuable corporation, and it is also the world’s most profitable enterprise. Job intelligence in technical skill, design, and vision is a key reason due to which Apple become one of the most powerful company. According to Issacson (2012), Jobs once said that there are several incredible products inside him, and he needs to get them out. Many visionary products launched by Apple before iPhone, iPod and iMac such as Macintosh and Apple II revolutionised the entire electronics and personal computer industry, and it influences the way people work and play with electronic devices. Another trait is self-confidence which is the ability of a person to become certain about one’s skills and competencies. A sense of self-assurance and self-esteem is included in self-confidence with the belief that one can take right decisions.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, has demonstrated these skills in his leadership style. He is one of the most influential leaders in this century who have ambition and self-confidence skills that enable him to manage both corporations at the same time, despite a large number of challenges faced by him due to rapidly changing aerospace and automobile industry. According to Glauser and Holland (2016), many experts criticise the way Musk run both of his businesses because of cash inefficiencies face by corporations due to running expensive and forward dated result based work. Despite the heavy criticism, Musk is determined based on his own abilities and knowledge, and he relentlessly pursues his objectives. He focuses towards achieving the desired result by encouraging other people to increase their productive performance.
The third key trait of successful leaders is ‘determination’ which is defined as a desire to get a job done; determination includes various attributes such as persistence, initiative, drive, and dominance. A similar approach was provided by Gehring (2007) which identified ‘determination’ as a key characteristic of successful leaders. He provided in his study that determination can be defined as ‘drive’ to make thing happen and constantly look for new ways to achieve desired results. Jack Ma, CEO and Founder of Alibaba Group in China, is one of the greatest leaders of this century. Zhang et al. (2017) provided that despite his personal hardship, he learned from his failures in life and never changed his determination to succeed. His story started in communist China where he was born poor; he twice failed in university entrance exam and rejected from dozens of jobs including Harvard and KFC. Finally, due to his determination, he founded Alibaba and become one of the greatest leaders of this century.
Integrity is the fourth trait which based on qualities of trustworthiness and honesty; it simplifies the correspondence between words and actions. Northouse (2017) provided that good leaders take responsibility for their actions and follow a strong set of moral principles. Honest leaders inspire confidence in his/her followers because people trust their judgement and decisions. They are highly dependable and loyal towards their followers; integrity makes leaders reliable and credible which establish a positive relation between followers and leader. Both Nicola Sturgeon and Theresa May are good examples of honest politicians who demonstrate integrity in their leadership approach; Anthony Lake is another good example who is the head of UNICEF.
The last trait provided by Northouse (2017) is sociability which is defined as a leader’s ability to seek out positive social relationships. The successful leaders demonstrate various positive abilities such as friendliness, courteous nature, diplomatic demeanour, extrovert nature, and sensitive persona. The core capabilities of a successful leader centers on his/her ability to engage in connecting, inquiry and advocacy. Due to good interpersonal skills, social leaders are able to establish and maintain cooperative relationships with their followers and others. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and co-founder of Facebook, is a good example of leader with sociability skills. As per Northouse (2017), a successful leader requires social judgement skills which allow him to ascertain requirements and demands of followers and tailor his/her responses as per organisational changes. Zuckerberg demonstrated this ability by creating a social networking site with his friends that bring people closer throughout the world and effectively managing multi-billion dollar corporation.
The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) is a professional institute which is situated in the United Kingdom. Following are the key characteristics of a successful leader which are identified by the CMI:
As per Gill (2011), the CMI identity similarities between key management and leadership characteristics bring into question whether successful leaders are born with specific traits and characteristics that make them effective or whether these skills can be developed and learned by people with experience. In 2013, Gartner predicted that the majority of people who are known as “knowledge workers” (who perform based on their knowledge such as software engineers, architects, and doctors) will be both positively and negatively disrupted by “smart machines” (Cooney, 2013). Smart machines which have the ability to learn from results will be able to take better decision and improve the process, but they also might be able to remove the requirement of human in the process. This technology highlights the importance of agility and adaptability skill in leaders that assist them moving forward in the 21st century based on the influence of technological advancements.
The points mentioned above regarding effective leadership traits will be enough to sustain strong leadership approach for a medium-term but in the long run, the definition of strong leaders will continue to evolve as per changing market conditions. As discussed above, some of these leadership traits are more situational bound that compared to others. In the 21st century, new competitive markets will include various factors such as blurring of industries boundaries, quality and customer satisfaction, extreme emphasis on price, hypercompetitive markets, changing employees’ career and expectation and finally growing emphasis on innovations and continuous learning. A successful leader with effective traits requires operating under these conditions in order to move forward in the future.
Conclusion
Conclusively, the traits are not enough to become a successful leader; instead, they provide the requirements that are necessary to be fulfilled by 21st-century leaders to become successful. Leaders of the future will require learning these traits through behavioural training or either born with them in order to become successful. The people who possess these traits have the ability to become a successful industry leader in the 21st century. The trait approach provides a benchmark that can be used in order to assess and measure the qualities that are required to become successful leaders in the future. The criteria identify what traits are required in leaders or whether the traits are already present in a leader; it provides what behavioural qualities are necessary to be learned by modern leaders. Today, the leaders have to adopt as uncertain and changing market condition in order to sustain in the market. The leadership traits guide leaders in moving forward through with some will flourish and many will fade. Finally, it is necessary to understand that leadership is a job, and it comprises various hardships, demands, difficulties, accountability, pressure, and unrelenting responsibilities, therefore, some human will be able to perform better in this nature than others.
References
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