It seems the success of many leaders, despite the leadership style, is based on solely three qualities: self-awareness/humility, emotional intelligence, and the ability to sell a bold vision to those being lead. There are somewhat contradictory methods of leadership within the readings, but these common themes emerge in more than one as being a definite characteristic of those leaders who have achieved greatness, earned respect, and maintained integrity all simultaneously.
Self-awareness and humility play a major role because they are positive constants throughout the ups and downs of company performance. Notably, a downside of many narcissistic leaders is their increasing narcissism and inability to yield to the advice of other after initial success has “proven their methodology right.” Humility does not fade with increasing success. The ability to be self-aware makes criticism easier to receive, which contributes to the overall goal and not just the ego-driven agenda of many leaders who lack the quality. Humility is something I feel has always been in me, but the ability to be self-aware is more than simply that. I find myself constantly measuring my actions, thoughts, and words against my target standards, and I hope one day this struggle will manifest itself in the form of being able to learn from my subordinates just as much as I dictate to them.
Emotional intelligence seemed like a nice author-fabricated qualitative description of the “stuff” of great leaders until this very phrase showed up in the other readings besides Goleman. It makes all the sense in the world that one’s personal success has little to do with their merit as opposed to the workings of their limbic system. After all, the ones that give you a promotion or review your successes and failures are people, too. I have every intention of using this to my full advantage; not to say that I’m not smart but there are those who will most likely go long ways [before getting fired] based solely on their performance. I’m not one of those people.
Finally, there is the one characteristic of the narcissistic leader, the ability to sell a vision. Narcissistic leaders are said to create the future and ask why not as opposed to predicting it and reacting to it. This is important because the readings do point out how most great advances within a company or corporation was because of a bold vision taken by a narcissistic leader. I don’t really like this term ‘narcissistic’ so I don’t really aspire to be like this. I do, however, aspire to be one willing to take reasonable risks to be on the vanguard of technology progression simply to garner the best possible opinion of those whom I serve or create a product. Yes, it is a bit erotic.
Despite the emphasis on the successes of the narcissistic leader it seemed that the class, in our discussion, chose some very non-narcissist like qualities in choosing which kind of leader we prefer to work for. Humility (in combination with will/motivation), personal reflection, being quiet yet respected, taking responsibility, giving credit, displaying good succession planning, and incorporating shared decision making were the main qualities we looked for in a leader. A lot of these are direct qualities of a level 5 leader. This corresponds nicely with the LEAD survey in which most people were either majority sellers or majority participants. Whereas there is an equally important time for each of the four quadrants, the participating and selling are most common because in usual business, the need for barking orders and the need for being idle (to quote the extremes) are few compared to the times of simple selling to induce change or simple participation to maintain change.
The ability to exhibit the aforementioned personality traits are integral to the leadership style profile, else one would indeed be too bossy or lenient. These qualities of the ideal leader resonate well with me because they are all qualities I hope to have to reach my desired levels of leadership. I am narcissistic enough that I do want to lead mainly because of my ideas, but there’s a certain manner in which I aim to realize my goals; these qualities are the tools I’ll need. Pointing out how the readings mentioned, qualities of the leader trickle down throughout the entire organization; nobody wants to be known as a hothead if the boss is a cool, fair leader.
In relation to the LEAD survey, these qualities make possible the leadership that will most likely be needed throughout the daily business of any company. When one is selling and participating, as describes the lead categories of most of the class, there is a significant amount of these qualities necessary. It is not possible to openly share and extract from others ideas if there is no humility, respect, and due credit from each participant. Even in selling, the seller has to acknowledge the ability for others to make positive improvements to the original idea, so he or she has to be careful not to talk down to those others. This is indicative of how I intend to run whatever operation I am put in charge of because I understand that nothing great has ever been accomplished without the enthusiastic help of others. This brings to mind the Truman quote at the beginning of the Collins reading: “You can accomplish anything in life, provided you do not mind who gets the credit.” (which is ironic because his speechwriter was probably responsible for this quote)
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