Strategies for Building Successful Leadership Research Paper

Strategies for Building Successful Leadership - Research Paper Example Moreover, to be a successful leader, I must be of high integrity, which simply means doing what I say and behaving in a way that I expect the team to behave. Basic Leadership Skills to Succeed As with any other job, resisting the work of leading makes it difficult to be effective and makes it impossible to find fulfillment or enjoyment in whatever an individual does. Therefore, lacking the desire to lead makes an individual unwilling to perform the work that pertains to a leader of a team. If a leader does not like the work he or she performs, chances are that the leader is not inspired to lead others to perform the tasks. In such a case, a leader is unable to reach his or her potential as a leader unless the leader works for an organization he believes in, as my uncle’s business. Commitment to the organization’s mission and vision is crucial since the first leader of the organization, who is my uncle, had a mission and vision about the company functions, service and ch anges that the company would bring to the industry. My uncle had to hire other people who could share his vision and believe in the mission of the organization; therefore, as a leader, I would have to coach newly hired employees to help them learn what would move the organization toward its objectives. In an ideal world, each employee works as if fulfilling the organization’s vision and mission were his or her personal goal; however, we do not live in an ideal world, hence as a leader, I have the task of remaining committed to and promoting the company’s vision and mission. Integrity is a crucial trait for a successful leader and it involves being true to one’s word, being authentic in actions and speech and demonstrating a behavior that a leader needs employees to emulate. Similar to other leadership skills, integrity requires practice and involves an effort to honor an individual’s word each time as well as remaining an example to employees even when un der stress or when having a personality conflict. As a leader, the gains of integrity are enormous in comparison to the harm that can result from lack of integrity within the workplace. To develop integrity as a leader, three areas that are essential and demand concentration include sincerity, consistency, and substance. For a leader, sincerity involves accepting responsibility for my commitment and striving to achieve them, being honest about my limitations, accepting responsibility for my mistakes and telling the truth. Consistency for leaders involves demonstrating this feature of integrity by treating employees equally, following through on promises and working as hard as, or even harder than, other employees. A substance in integrity refers to what I am regarding work relationships and includes keeping private employee information private and doing what is right for the team and not merely for me (Reina D. & Reina M., 2006). Successful leaders are entrepreneurial and, therefore , able to recognize opportunities and organize resources to tap into the advantages of the opportunity.