The Concepts of Leadership: Traits & Skills

Trait approach and skills approach are considered the two important attempts to study and deeply realize the concepts of leadership, its stretegies and methodologies in certain situations. From a leadership perspective, trait approach shows that “certain people were born with special traits that made them great leaders” (Northouse, 2013, p.40). Some researchers suggest that only traits do not make a person a good leader as a leader in one situation may not be a leader in other circumstances. I consider it is essential to realize that a successful and “intelligent” leadership is a result of “a working relationship between the leader and other group members” (Northouse, 2013, p.20). After completing the Leadership Trait Questionnaire, most of my answers were mostly “agree” or “strongly agree” with the statements provided. This trait questionnaire significantly helped me to measure my personal characteristics of leadership, clarified a number of definitions, and provided a better understanding of certain terms and features about leadership. My responses to the instruments does not differ significantly now that I’ve read the chapters but the course book offered me more detailed explanation and understanding of certain leadership concepts and leadership traits. After completing the questionnaire, it becomes obvious that many traits may contribute to leadership; some of them are essential like self-confidence, determination, intelligence, or sociability, while others are not. Skills approach is another important attempt to study leadership, its influences, its perspectives, and abilities that can be learned, trained, or improved. From a leadership perspective, human, technical, and conceptual skills are crucially important to effective leadership, positive leadership environment, and interactions with team members. According to the skills approach, “knowledge and abilities are needed for effective leadership” (Northouse, 2013, p.43). After completing the skills inventory, I’ve discovered a lot of new characteristics and features about personal skills and its relation and influence on leadership. This inventory helped me to measure leadership skills and determined my own skills about leadership. Some of my skills were very strong (human skills), while others were not (conceptual and technical skills). Both questionnaire and skills inventory provided me a better understanding of certain leadership concepts, helped me determine my inner leadership potential, and clearly analyzed personal strengths and weaknesses to better understand what I need to improve in the future.    

References:

Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. 6th edition, Sage Publications, Inc.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
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