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Leadership: Personality Traits and Characteristics

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Each year, many business colleges and news organizations honor someone that they have selected as the business leader of the year. If asked, most people could easily identify someone that they believe to be a great leader. Consider whom you would select. Whether in the workplace, community, or government, this individual would embody the traits that you consider important in a leader. Reflect on the personality characteristics of this leader. Also, consider how this individual influenced the culture of the organization or environment in which he or she participated.

QUESTIONS:

1. What traits and personality characteristics are important for leadership? If someone does not possess these traits, can they still be an effective leader? Can these traits be learned?

2. Can a positive trait also become or be perceived as a weakness? Explain.

3. How do these traits vary between cultures? How can leaders who lead in an international context deal with multicultural perceptions? Give specific examples.

Kindly assist with these 3 questions. Please address all areas. Please also include any scholarly references.

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Solution Summary

Personality traits and characteristics for individuals are discussed. The traits of perceived weaknesses are provided.

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1. What traits and personality characteristics are important for leadership? Cite at least 2 journal articles as references. If someone does not possess these traits, can they still be an effective leader? Can these traits be learned?

It is my belief that leaders should possess an interpersonal magnetism, which encourages people to communicate and collaborate with a leader. I've learned throughout my years of experience in various organizations that charismatic, transformational, and transactional leaders are characteristics that promote organizational growth, organizational development, and operational effectiveness. Unfortunately there are organizations with leaders who lead their organization as an autocrat.

Spears and Parker (2013) identify six fully rounded quality traits of a leader such as:

• Drive, which derives from a leader's determination to make a difference or change an organizational or community environment.

• Desire to lead.

• Self-confidence, most leaders I've worked with or recently witnessed have a measure of self-assuredness that delivers a message to subordinates that he or she understands his or her role within the organization. Employees respect leaders who are confident in his abilities to lead.

• Cognitive ability, a leader must demonstrate his or her ability to make strategic decisions, alleviate internal conflict, and mitigate potential external risks.

• Business knowledge, organizational success stems from leaders knowledge of the industry. It is stated that if you can't explain something in detail then you probably know little about the subject. Countless individuals enter the world of business with the hope to live the dream of becoming a ...

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