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Three Characteristics of a Good Leader

Josue A De Aquino Grand Canyon University UNV-104: 21st Century Skills: Communication and Information Literacy Megan Castles February 28, 2021

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Leadership can be explained in many different ways and be viewed in just as many variations depending on who is asked. Leadership is an ever-expanding trait; people have the capability to expand on the traits they have or pick up on some new ones they might see in others. Something many people can agree on is that good leaders have certain characteristics that set them apart from their peers. Research shows that three characteristics shared by those considered to be good leaders include credibility, resilience and motivation.

When speaking about a good leader something that comes to mind is the credibility of the person. If meeting someone for the first time or if someone were to transfer somewhere it is only natural that they would be curious and possibly do a little bit of research to see what they will be working with. A person’s credibility will be something that could be questioned. Whether it is good or bad people that have worked with them would be able to speak to their credibility. According to Campbell (1993) “credibility is a crucial component of successful leadership.” (p. 30) It is basically a necessity if you wish to be viewed as a good leader. Credibility is a vital characteristic that any good leader or aspiring leader would want to emulate in their own style. A person’s credibility will have the ability to speak for them when they are not around. For example, when tasking a new project, a person track record on past assignments will speak volumes for that individual even if they are not present to speak for themselves. Anyone’s credibility not only follows them but it also precedes them. Having a good history of credibility will influence the type of leader they are or will be viewed as. In terms of what good leaderships is a lot of people tend to focus on success, victories and stories of triumph. Something that people do not think about very often is that even the

3 greatest leaders fail from time to time. There will be a situation or project in which any leader, despite the amount of preparation or planning will face failure. For this reason, an important characteristic that a good leader should posses is resiliency. Being resilient will not only help the leader bounce back from a downfall or setback but would also help the rest of the team stick together and not be discouraged about something that did not go their way. As stated by McCarrick et al, (2020) “Personality has often been job performance and satisfaction, particularly with regard to resilience and coping with pressure.” Without resilience one might struggle with the pressures that will definitely arise and could affect how you as the leader or any member of the team would deal with the stress and pressure. Resiliency will provide the strength to get back up and try again no matter how bad the failure was, even if it means starting from the very beginning. When thinking of a good leader it is imperative that he or she is able to provide the team with motivation. Motivation is probably one of the more important characteristics of a good leader because nothing happens without first being motivated to act. “Group level TFL treats unit employees similarly and they have equal access to idealized influence and inspirational motivation.” (Sheehan, Garavan & Morely, 2020). A good leader will not only be motivated but will also have the ability to motivate the rest of the team in order for them to have purpose, direction and buy in. A motivated leader is a motivating leader, this characteristic is vital to success and so it is also vital in good leadership. Building the motivation in a team will have great impacts on the team’s cohesion which will help in better team work and idea sharing so that everyone is on the same page instead of having a team of individuals. In conclusion, good leadership will be interpreted in many ways depending on who you ask and the field in which you are asking. One thing that can be said about good leaders is that

4 they have a particular set of characteristics that make them the good leaders that they are. There are many more characteristics that good leaders have credibility, resiliency and motivation are three of the many traits. The idea of a good leader is heavily based on personal opinion but research shows that there are many specific ones that are shared by people who have been labeled as good leaders.

5 References Campbell, David. (1993). Good Leaders Are Credible Leaders. Research Technology Management, 36(5), 29–31. McCarrick, D., Wolfson, S., & Neave, N. (2019). Personality characteristics of UK association football referees. Journal of Sport Behavior, 42(4), 493-508. Sheehan, M., Garavan, T. N., & Morley, M. J. (2020). Transformational leadership and work unit innovation: A dyadic two-wave investigation. Journal of Business Research, 109, 399– 412....