KEY TRAITS OF SUPERLEADERS

A good leader usually can succeed in most organizations. The following are some specific traits that distinguish outstanding leaders from the rest. These are based on the views of John W. Gardner, former US Secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

 PHYSICAL VITALITY AND STAMINA INTELLIGENCE AND JUDGMENT-IN ACTION Judgment is the ability to combine hard data, questionable data, and intuitive guesses to arrive at a conclusion that events prove to be correct. Judgment-inAction includes effective problem solving, the design of strategies, the setting of priority, and intuitive and rational judgments. Most important, perhaps, it includes to capacity to appraise the potentialities of co-worker (and opponents).

Warren G. Bennis, Reflections on Leadership and Change Leaders are people who do the right thing; Managers are people who do things right

 WILLINGNESS (EAGERNESS) TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY TASK COMPETENCE Top-level leaders cannot hope to have competence in more than a few of the matters under their jurisdiction, but they must have knowledge of the whole system over which they preside, its mission, and the environment in which it functions.

Warren Bennis Leading Change: The leader as the Chief Transformation Officer explains; Management is getting people to do what needs to be done. Leadership is getting people to want to do what needs to be done. Managers push; Leaders pull Managers command; Leaders communicate

 UNDERSTANDING OF FOLLOWERS/CONSTITUENTS AND THEIR NEEDS

SKILLS IN DEALING WITH PEOPLE

NEED TO ACHIEVE

CAPACITY TO MOTIVATE
More than any other attribute, this is close to the heart of the popular conception of leadership-the capacity to move people to action, to communicate persuasively, and to strengthen the confidence of followers.

JOHN W. GARDNER stressed, The manager is more tightly linked to an organization than is the leader. Indeed, the leader may have no organization at all. Abraham Zaleznik Where managers act to limit choices, leaders work in the opposite direction, to develop fresh approaches to longstanding problems and to open issues for new options..Leaders create excitement in work.

 COURAGE, RESOLUTION and STEADFASTNESS Clearly, a leader needs courage-not just bravery of the moment but courage over time, not just willingness to risk but to risk again and again-to function well under prolonged stress and to survive defeat and keep going.

Richard Pascale - Leadership is making happen what wouldnt happen anyway[and will] always entail working at the edge of what is acceptable.

 CAPACITY TO WIN AND HOLD TRUST

CAPACITY TO MANAGE, DECIDE, AND SET

CONFIDENCE

To take the risks that leaders take and to handle the criticism and hostility that leaders must absorb requires confidence.

George Weathersby - Management is the allocation of scarce resources against an organizations objective, the setting of priorities, the design of work and the achievement of results. Most important, its about controlling. Leadership, on the other hand, focuses on the creation of a common vision. It means motivating people to contribute to the vision and encouraging them to align their self-interest with that og the organization. It means persuading, not commanding.

 ASCENDANCE, DOMINANCE, AND ASSERTIVENESS The individuals who achieve leadership roles are apt to have a fairly strong impulse to take charge. Their assertiveness doesnt necessarily conform to the stereotype of the visibly forceful leader-some are quiet and unspectacular-but whatever their outward style, their inner impulse is to leave their thumbprints on events.

John Mariotti Great leaders get extra ordinary results from ordinary people. Great managers simply get well-planned and sometimes well-executed outcomes, but eldom the huge successes that arise from the passion and enthusiastic commitment inspired by true leadership. Leaders are the architects. Managers are the builders. Both are necessary, but witout the architect, there is nothing special to build.

 ADAPTABILITY AND FLEXIBILITY OF APPROACH The attributes required of a leader depend on the kind of leadership being exercised, the context, the nature of followers, and so on.

Leaders as Teachers (Depree and Tichy) Leaders estalish the teachable point of view. Leadership is about motivating others by teaching stories, Tichy contends that effective leadership equates with effetive teaching.

How judgmental are we after perceiving some unusual situation?

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