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Leadership Styles and Traits

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Leadership Styles and Traits

Robin Carle-Schindel

Leadership goes far beyond just directing a process. An effective leader creates a partnership with a group of people. In business, a leader’s constituents are comprised of managers and other employees, all of whom share a subordinate role to their leader. As a leader you must actively inspire those constituents to embrace the philosophy and goals of your company. “To build an extraordinary management team, you’ve got to light the fire in their bellies” (Vogan. 2013). You must imbue them all, with a motivation directed toward your vision, and the optimal outcomes of aligned goals. Without a mission and vision shared by all of the personnel involved, reaching a state of synergistic cooperation required to move a company toward real evolution, cannot exist. You must exercise excellent communication skills, both as a listener and speaker. You want your words to paint a living picture of your vision.

A leader takes ultimate responsibility for the consequences of all decisions, regardless of how those decisions are reached. As a leader you can choose and adapt various leadership styles according to given sets of circumstances and personnel. “Everyone is unique, and there are no universal sets of standards for everyone,” (www.Leadership-toolbox.com/leadership 2012).

As you function in a leadership role, you may want to consider and reference some basic leadership traits and styles. If you understand your strengths and where those fit into a given leadership style, you develop a quiver of leadership resources that can be adapted to different situations. Also, when you understand your weaknesses, those can be worked on and strengthened.

Communication is the foundation of any style of leadership. It is also provides a scaffolding for the trust that any effective leader must elicit from their

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