An effective leader is motivated and persistent in the decision-making process.They tend to persevere when faced with obstacles and are persistent enough to perform their job till completion. These leaders are usually energetic, tenacious, persistent, and take initiative. <a href="https://www.psychologs.com/the-psychology-of-determination/">Determination </a> in a leader creates a resilient and goal-oriented environment that inspires their team leaders to achieve <a href="https://www.psychologs.com/the-psychology-behind-success/">success </a>.

Determination

Leaders who introspect are better able to understand their behaviours and their impact on their followers. Leaders who also possess effective communication ability and persuasion skills are relatively more successful in their role. Additionally, strong interpersonal skills in a leader ensure group cooperation and support to achieve community goals. They inspire others to align with the organization’s or community’s vision and goals. Through self and other awareness of goals, ideas and feelings, they can motivate their team members to contribute their best efforts.

Intellectual capacity refers to the aptitude for understanding, reasoning, and grasping facts and their relational patterns. Research has consistently highlighted that leaders possess a sharper intellect than non-leaders. However, research also indicates that a large disparity in the intellectual abilities of leaders and non-leaders hinders leadership effectiveness. A leader should be able to communicate complex concepts in such a manner that it is understandable to their team members.

Intelligence

To maintain cohesiveness and work collaboratively with subordinates, leaders need to possess knowledge of human behaviour as well as the processes of the group. Empathetic leaders are necessary to understand the motivations, feelings and values of their members and subordinates. This ability helps the leader decide which strategy or leadership style would be effective to achieve success.

Empathy

The leaders need to follow the same rules that they have established for the followers. Exploitation and manipulation of the group’s procedures and its members can compromise the credibility of the leader. Leaders must take responsibility for their actions and decisions,failure to do so can result in diminishing the faith of the followers.

Integrity was considered to be the most desired trait in a leader as per the survey conducted with 1500 managers. For the team members to follow the instructions and directions of a leader, it becomes essential that the leader be truthful, ethical and principled. To be successful as a leader, it is important to establish interpersonal trust and respect with the members of the team. The leader must be ethical in their daily routine of leading a group to receive the admiration and loyalty of its members.

Personal Integrity

For effective leadership, it is essential to trust oneself with one’s ideas and decision-making skills to ensure success. <ul><li>Self-confidence highlights the ability to ensure that goals and ideas are achievable and realistic. </li><li>Self-confident leaders possess a positive attitude and the necessary skills to overcome challenges. </li><li>They have a stable sense of self-esteem and trust in their power and ability to make effective decisions for their members and organization/community.</li><li>They can stay calm under pressure and are open to constructive feedback.</li></ul>

Self-confidence

A leader must have a sufficient understanding of the operations of the organization and the direction in which it is headed. Leaders must have the ability to predict the future of the organization based on current trends. This must be done to ensure analytical and strategic planning is done to sustain the organization in economically difficult times. Intuition along with conscious reasoning ensures that organizational or community-level problems are dealt with in the context of the situation at hand.

Creativity and Analytical ability

The most unique ability that a leader can possess is to be able to understand the situation at hand accurately and adapt creative solutions to meet its demands. A leader who can assess accurately the social and emotional demands of the situation is high on self-monitoring and socio-emotional intelligence. Those who are high on these traits can understand the needs of the group and come up with solutions that satisfy the employee’s needs and the organization’s goals. These leaders use their emotional intelligence to improve and enhance their cognitive processes and decision-making abilities.

Diagnosticians

When the behaviour of the leader proves to be hypocritical, the followers may lose motivation and performance may decline.

All communication that is done across the community or organization by the leader must not prove to be ambiguous. The exchange of information by the leader where ideas, intentions and vision are presented should be done with enough clarity and precision. Not just verbal communication, but also non-verbal communication and patterns of behaviour of the leader should be consistent. The followers should not have to infer the meaning of the actions, internal thoughts and behaviours of the leader.

Consistency

Charisma in a leader inspires their followers to view them as a role model. These leaders demonstrate confidence in their preparedness to pursue exceptional goals which encourage the followers and instill confidence in them. Charismatic leaders are influential in their regular communication which encourages the followers to achieve the mission and goals of the company. These leaders tend to go beyond their internal conflicts and direct their energy into constructive work.

Charisma

When working in an organization or at the community or national level, a variety of complex situations are encountered by a leader. In stressful situations, people often react in a uniform and narrow manner. Their most dominant responses are highlighted. However, for a leader to sustain and be effective, it becomes necessary to have broad and flexible patterns of behaviour across all situations. Leaders possessing traits of adaptability, behavioural flexibility and openness are viewed as more effective by their followers.

Flexible

Someone with average intelligence won't become a genius, just as someone without natural leadership won't become a top leader.