Leadership Essay

Table of Contents

1.0

Introduction.....................................................................................................................2

2.0

Evaluating Leadership.....................................................................................................3

2.1

Emotional Intelligence....................................................................................................4

2.2

Narcissists Leadership.....................................................................................................4

2.3

Authentic and Focus Leader............................................................................................5

3.0

Putting it together............................................................................................................7

4.0

Reference.........................................................................................................................7

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1.0 Introduction
There are divergent perspectives of what attributes a leader should possess, what qualities
make one leader blossom and another wither away, why one leader is considered a strong
leader and another is considered a weak leader. What makes certain leaders highly adorable,
inspire loyalty, stimulate employee commitment, consider trustworthy, and instils hard-work
while others of similar qualities, vision or strategic view are unsuccessful? Probably, highly
effective leaders have unique innate characteristics - a kind of sixth sense, as in the theory of
natural born leader. Conversely, behaviour theory makes us understand that great leaders are
made not born - people can be trained, coached, mentored and tutored to become a leader.
The attempt to identify key distinctive personality traits or capabilities synonymous to a most
highly effective leader results in the postulation of varieties of leadership concepts.
Leadership theorists tell us that personal styles of most successful leaders vary; some leaders

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adopt autocratic behaviour while others embrace democratic or even laissez-faire leadership
style. Further studies shows that certain personality traits are unique to most effective leaders.
Goleman (2003) lets us know that most of the highly effective leaders have what he called
emotional intelligence. In this sense, an ideal leader possesses emotional intelligence which is
considered the prerequisite to leadership effectiveness, a learned capability, not inborn. On
the other hand, George et al. (2007) reminded us that reading a leadership cookbook and
emulating all the capabilities outlined in the book cannot make you an effective leader. A
similar opinion was shared by Henry Mintzberg, when he said, leadership is like swimming;
it can't be learned by reading it. Neither will imitating someone make you an authentic leader,
leadership surface in the story of our life.
Nevertheless, the message is clear in the work of Ancona et al. (2007), Only when leaders see
themselves as incomplete, will they be able to make up for their missing skills. A good leader
positions people well, and discovers what they are good at. He/she's not oblivious of his/her
surrounding, he/she's self-aware. Goleman (2013) placed attention on the centre stage,
resonating attention as the building block of leadership skills, if mastered, you will be in
command of your company. When attention is focused on self and others, a focused leader
can filter out distraction from subordinates because they are aware of how others see them
and understand what others need from them.
A leader nurtures and coordinate the activities of others, and builds trust at all levels of the
organisation to succeed. However, lack of self-awareness and ignorant leadership are strong
elements in a recipe for failure. A leader needs to be culturally intelligent, and to develop
cognitive knowledge of the surrounding especially when pushing through transformation as
in the case of Lean implementation. Leadership is the starting point in achieving a state of
perfection in the organisational Lean journey, good leaders understand their people,
customers and the market the company operates.
This writing aims to synthesise specific leadership articles recommended in the course-work
to identify definitive traits of effective leaders and articulate a definition of leadership.

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2.0 Evaluating Leadership

Leadership is simply defined as someone whom other people follow. He/she is tasked to
direct attention, have a great vision and inspire his/her followers. Most of all, to hold the
position of power, and have authority over the followers. Leadership is the utmost important
thing in the life of any company, the success or failure of the company is at the hand of the
leadership.
Leader has to inform right behaviour that will lead to high performance, and create a culture
island that will value employees and the customers. However, how many times have we seen
a leader that send the company to crisis mode due to arrogance, ignorance, and
overestimation of themselves which eventually leads to the demise of the company. If such a
leader is not stopped in time, he/she will self-destruct or derail the organisation to ruin. We all
witnessed the Enron scandal of 2001, in which the leadership cultivated an unhealthy culture
that led to the demise of the company. This mistrust, greed and dishonest culture caged the
leadership in prison.

2.1 Emotional Intelligence

The work of many leadership researchers asserted that most of the highly successful leaders
have emotional intelligence. Goleman (2003) makes us believe that emotional intelligence
distinguishes superior leaders from their peers but is also the predictor of strong financial
performance. In his work, he identified five components of emotional intelligence; 1) Selfawareness, 2) Self-regulation, 3) Motivation, 4) Empathy, and 5) Social skill, which
correlates to high performance.
Researchers demonstrated that emotional intelligence can be learned with sincere desire and
effort, though it is not easy. If it was so easy many leaders would do it, not by reading a book,
going to seminars, attending classes or educating oneself, but it can be done with enthusiasm,
determination and persistence. A high degree of emotional intelligence is an ingredient to
high productivity in the workplace, and the higher the rank of the star performer in the
company, the more emotional intelligence capabilities show up as the main reason for his/her
effectiveness.
However, a gullible leader will stereotype emotional intelligence with an assumption that a
dose of it will dramatically improve performance. Pessimistically, the people with emotional
intelligence are not considered to have the best analytical skills or have the strategic
intelligence of the narcissist leaders. They are best known for making impulsive decisions
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rather than relying on facts, hard data, logic and reasoning. In some instances, they are
considered a weak leader that can be manipulated or taken advantage of by their people and
the subordinates. For instance, a leader that was emotionally attached with his/her team
members may unconsciously allow employees to use feelings and problems as excuses for
mediocre performance or to avoid duties by concocting sympathy inducing lies. How many
times has an emotionally intelligent boss tolerated under-performing staff because the
perpetrator has a mortgage and children.
Balancing emotional intelligence with a small dose of narcissistic personality traits, in my
view, is the recipe for a highly effective leader.

2.2 Narcissists Leadership

Maccoby (2000) talks of the differences between what he termed productive and
unproductive narcissism. A productive narcissist's gifted charm, eloquent, oratory and
rhetoric traits are strengths that show the ability to attract followers and draw people along.
Narcissist leaders by nature are not good team players because of their independence, selfabsorption, self-reliance, and aggressiveness. Even their good virtues can be a double-edged
sword; if channelled positively, it can be a vital ammunition in the leadership armoury.
Channelled negatively, it becomes a perfect tool to con, deceive, mislead, and exploit people.
To exemplify a companys Lean journey, a leaders ability to charm and persuade others can
help to quench resistance to change or convert doubters, though there should be an element of
trust, which narcissistic leaders lack.
Desire for power, control, and command of the people is what actually drives narcissists to
seek leadership positions because people who possess narcissistic traits are considered natural
leaders. A narcissist leader considers him/herself a complete leader without an iota of
weakness; a flawless self-made person with a multitude of strengths. Such arrogance, egoism,
self-centredness, and overconfidence can sometimes make a subordinate set up a leader for a
free fall. I personally bear the scar of working for the most horrible, clueless, deceitful
narcissist leader I have ever come across. I noticed that self-absorption, delusion, and selfdeception can push a narcissist leader to unhealthy practice. For instance, my former manager
would psychologically bully and intimidate his team members to get his way, in some
instances, he would shout at the top of his voice to resonate his ideas. There was not one
improvement idea sanctioned in the team, you only needed to listen to him, and him only. His

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lack of empathy, devaluation of other peoples contribution to the team, and continually
seeking adulation where he deserved none made me dislike him.
Having said this, an interesting question popped into my mind. Are narcissist personality
traits good or bad for a leader to have? A different situation calls for different personality
traits to deal with it successfully. A small dose of narcissist personality traits might be
necessary for a leader to survive in the modern business era. A narcissist leader's strategic
intelligence, innovative drive and creative mind is critical to business success continuity. The
late Steve Jobs, the former Apple CEO is one of the most admirable narcissist figures in the
world of business for the great impact he has had on our world. His biographer tells us that he
was obsessive, and the relentless pursuit of a competitive edge made him arrogant and
ruthless. Of course, the manipulation, bullying, scorn, disrespect, arrogance and hostility of a
narcissist boss is not acceptable in the work place, to survive them you must learn to play the
office game.

2.3 Authentic and Focused Leader

Leadership needs to get more control over their attention, and focus on what really matters
while filtering distractions. Goleman (2013) urged leaders to cultivate a triad of awarenessinward focus, focus on others, and outward focus. When a leader focuses on himself- he gets
in touch with the inner self which allows him/her to concentrate 100% attention. He/she
listens and accepts inner voices to inform his/her decisions as they naturally come to him/her.
A focused leader relies less on hard data to make decisions, they let their intuition guide them
when making a decision. On a personal ground, if I listen to my inner voice I hardly make
mistakes.
Self-awareness subjects us to the realisation that were incomplete, we have weaknesses and
strengths, and our capabilities are limited. By articulating this, you are able to know who you
are, what you are, and understand how to develop yourself as a leader to serve others
effectively. Such commitment to developing oneself makes us authentic, to be who we are,
not trying to emulate somebody else. Knowing we are incomplete helps us to create crossfunctional teams whereby people complement one anothers strength to make one another's
weaknesses irrelevant. By being authentic, we are the same person to others as we are to
ourselves.
By focusing on others, you are able to emotionally connect to your team, understand their
view, know why they thought what they did, articulate what works for them and reason with
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them. It is only by knowing how to love oneself, we know how to love another person. If you
dont understand your own feelings you cannot understand the feelings of your team
members. Self-awareness enables you to sense what people feel and need from you. By
understanding your subordinates' inner world, you can be empathetic with their shortfalls and
help them during difficult periods knowing they have a shoulder to cry on. You create a bosssubordinate bond, a sense of team camaraderie, a brotherhood, a sense of commitment and
connection within your team, this affiliation is an essential element of effective teams. When
team members feel a sense of connection with their leader, they will work their heart and soul
for that leader. Disconnection between the leader and the team members, with a leaders
ignorance, ruthlessness, psychological bullying and an insensitive ego, sometimes frustrates
subordinates to the extent he/she wants the leader out. Leaders that focus on others cultivate a
culture of togetherness.
By focusing outward, a leader must not just understand oneself and others, but must
understand the larger system that shapes and impacts our life and the organisation. Leader
awareness of the macro-environmental factors (such as Political, Economic, Social, Legal,
Technologic, and Regulatory etc.) helps the leader to build a defence mechanism against
external competitive forces that may threaten the organisation's existence. Understanding of
the larger system, enables the leader to come up with an effective strategy that will shape the
organisation's direction and competitiveness. Microsoft's past CEO's failures to focus
outward, to seize the opportunities presented by the larger system in the technological
business have left the company behind to lead major technology development of modern era,
such as cloud, mobile, social media, internet, 3D printing etc. An outwardly focused leader
sees the opportunities miles away and captures the moment with a definitive strategy that will
catapult the company to new horizons.

3.0Putting it together
Leadership is not inborn but in our story of life, it is not something we can learn from a
leadership cookbook, but a leader can be mentored and coached. Review of the leadership
literature shows that there are no distinctive traits, characteristics or styles of the highly
effective leaders; the personality styles of superior leaders vary. Effective leaders excel not
just by technical skill and smartness, but by connecting with people he/she leads using
emotional intelligence such as self-awareness, motivation and empathy (Goleman, 2003).

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Emotional intelligence can be learnt through hard work and commitment. However,
adaptation of a particular leadership style to another makes a leader unauthentic. Only when a
leader has accepted that they are incomplete, they can compensate their missing skills with
the skills of others. If you are honest and trustworthy, people will accept you for what you
are, a leader needs to be him/herself, not trying to emulate somebody else because leadership
has many voices. After all, some leaders are self-aware, others are self-absorbed, and some
are empathetic while others lack empathy. Narcissist leaders are motivated by their need to
grasp power and admiration rather than have empathetic concern for the team.
Leadership means many things to many people, and has multitudinous meanings and
definitions. The discussion so far shows that a leader must have a follower to be considered a
leader, he/she needs followers to achieve goals and objectives. The leader motivates, nurtures,
inspires, coaches and bring together the skills needed to build a highly effective team. For the
purpose of this written work, leadership is defined as the art of influencing others to achieve a
goal.

4.0 Reference
Manzoni, J. F., & Barsoux, J. L. (2009). Are your subordinates setting you up to fail?. MIT
Sloan management review, 50(4), 43-51.
George, B., Sims, P., McLean, A. N., and Mayer, D. (2007). "Discovering Your Authentic
Leadership." Harvard Business Review 85, no. 2.
Ancona, D., Malone, T. W., Orlikowski, W. J., & Senge, P. M. (2007). In praise of the
incomplete leader. Harvard Business Review, 85(2), 92-100.
Maccoby, M. (2000). Narcissistic leaders: The incredible pros, the inevitable cons. Harvard
Business Review, 78(1), 68-78.
Goleman, D. (2013). The focused leader. Harvard Business Review, 91(12), 50-60.
Goleman, D. (2003). What makes a leader?, Organizational Influence Processes (Porter, LW,
et al. Eds.), New York, ME Sharpe, 229-241.

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