What should a group leader be like? The main character traits of a leader. Gaining new experience

02.05.2020

If you decide to become a real leader, then you will undoubtedly need a lot of work on yourself. After all, a leader has a multiple set of psychological qualities and knowledge for his viability.

Leader (from English) leader) - the first, going ahead of the rest 🙂 - a person who, in a certain group of people, enjoys recognition, authority and has influence, which is defined as managerial activity. The leader makes the most important decisions of the group or organization and manages all processes as a whole, while giving direction for further actions.

In this article we will talk not about that, but about To qualities of a leader.

Leader Qualities:

1) Self-confidence

2) Communication skills

Without this quality of a leader it is difficult to imagine the ability to establish contacts and quickly find mutual language with the team, the most important quality is not only in this path.

3) Ability to constantly learn

It's no secret that our world is constantly changing at an ever-increasing speed. It is in this regard that modern leaders simply need to constantly replenish their knowledge and introduce innovations in their business. This will significantly increase your competitiveness.

4) Determination

Very important quality, which separates the leader from other people. He always knows what he wants and what needs to be done for it. After all, you will agree to lead the crowd stupidly when you yourself don’t know where.

5) Responsibility

The ability to be responsible for one’s words, actions, and decisions is an essential quality of a leader. Here you can no longer say “who is to blame?” You will have to take on the entire burden of possible failures and failures, but share success with everyone.

6) Self-discipline

Ordinary people easily allow themselves all possible weaknesses. But the leader cannot afford to give up and must constantly be collected and ready for action.

7) Ability to communicate and listen to people

The ability to communicate and listen to people are one of the main leadership qualities. This is where leadership begins. You must not only communicate and convince people in understandable languages, but also be able to listen and understand each person as an individual.

8) Ability to create a team

We all understand that without a team, a leader ceases to be a leader. Therefore, the ability to create a team is one of the key qualities of a leader. It costs a lot to attract and convince people to follow your banner.

9) Persistence

A leader is a person who never gives up and is constantly active. He searches for answers and solutions until he finds them.

10) Ambition

A leader always strives for high goals and bright results, while doing this consciously without imagining fairy-tale mountains.

Developing leadership qualities contributes to the development of a person’s strong inner core. The term “leadership” is found in various sciences that study man and society. For any group consisting of more than two people, this problem is relevant. Some of its members begin to behave more actively, people begin to listen to him, his opinion is put above others. In the process of forming a team, group members are conditionally divided into two camps: leaders and followers.

The study of this phenomenon has continued for many years. A huge number of scientific works are devoted to the concept of “leadership”.

Why is this so important? Defining the concept and criteria of leadership helps to improve the methodology of effective management, which is important in modern society.

The debate about whether leaders are made or born continues to this day. Some psychologists adhere to the first version, others are inclined to the theory of the presence of inclinations by nature. But both of them agree that with due persistence and desire, any person can do it, which will lead him to success in his career and personal life.

Such a person is distinguished from the crowd by his special charisma.

Energy and determination are always characteristic of a leader.

These people are not afraid to take responsibility and initiative.

Control over own emotions allow you to remain calm and cool in any situation, to look for the optimal way out of the current circumstances.

The ability to “ignite” those around you, captivate them with ideas, and make them your comrades-in-arms.

Leader and manager: differences and similarities

The success of any business depends on who manages it. The first person of any company is its leader, who is responsible for the results and is responsible for everything that happens. At the same time, the director or boss is not always a leader.

The USSR had very good leaders. But not all of them were able to rebuild and become leaders in modern conditions. Effective management depends on a person being able to combine both roles. What are the differences between a manager and a leader?

Supervisor

The leader does not strive to achieve any goals. For him, tasks are usually set by someone higher up, so there is no personal interest. As a result, the manager has a passive position in relation to the result of work and low efficiency of employees.

The manager controls employees, and punishments for misconduct are much more common than rewards for success. Shortcomings in work are brought up for discussion, in contrast to achievements, which are practically not noted.

A leader demands respect for himself.

Leader

The leader clearly sees the final goal and plans the stages to achieve it. He strives to captivate his subordinates, to interest them in the result, in the activity.

The leader motivates and inspires the group. Work on errors takes place together, the team looks for ways to solve them. Rewards take precedence over punishments.

The leader treats employees as colleagues and welcomes initiative from subordinates.

Combination

In order to effectively manage a company and build a career, it is not enough to be a good leader. Modern reality is such that a boss must have the makings of a leader; this is the only way to talk about achieving any results and developing the organization.

List of personal qualities of a leader

There are several main qualities that a leader needs:

Responsibility.
Adequate self-esteem.
Emotional intellect.
High concentration.
Empathy.
Perseverance and patience.
Charm and charisma.
Self-development planning.

Developing leadership qualities requires constant work on yourself. Planning at this stage is great importance. To do this, you should follow several important recommendations:

Not everyone can set the right goal. The end result seems weak and very blurry to many. This is one of the main obstacles to success. The clearer the goal is, the greater the chances of achieving it.

Don't miss the opportunity! The ability to recognize and use them is distinctive feature any leader. Passively waiting for the right opportunity is not for those who truly strive for success.

Don't be afraid to take risks! We should not forget about such a concept in psychology as the “comfort zone”. In it a person feels familiar and comfortable, he feels good in everything. But often it is the “comfort zone” that is an obstacle to development, since you can easily get “stuck” in it. There is no need to be afraid of new situations, unexpected turns and events. Without them, personal growth and development of leadership qualities is impossible.

You must always be open to learning. Do not think that after receiving a diploma higher education, you no longer have to open textbooks. You should never neglect the theoretical part of any question. One of the classics said long ago that knowledge lies in power.

Observe others and learn from their positive experiences. From childhood, before a person’s eyes there are people more successful and successful than him in business. You should not envy them, since adopting their experience and professional qualities will bring much more benefit.

In this publication I want to look at the main leadership skills: what qualities a person must have to become a leader. In order to be a leader in some business, in principle, it is not necessary to be a leader, at the same time, leaders have a much greater chance of achieving the desired goal faster. Therefore, it is still advisable to develop the qualities of a leader in yourself - this will definitely not be superfluous, but will only help you in any area of life, business, work.

Why are some people leaders in any team all their lives, starting from school, others become leaders later, at some point in their lives, and others play supporting roles all their lives? The reason for this is leadership qualities. The first have them innately, the second develop them in themselves, and the third don’t even think about it, they are satisfied with who they are. What are leadership qualities and what do they include - this is discussed further in today’s article.

What are leadership qualities?

Leader Qualities is a set of knowledge, skills, abilities, abilities from different life spheres, allowing a person to gather other people around him, lead them, create his own team and effectively manage it. It is impossible to unambiguously name any specific quality that immediately makes a person a leader; leadership qualities are precisely the combination of a large number of different personal, psychological and organizational aspects that coexist simultaneously.

At the same time, it is also not worth expanding the qualities of a leader too much, because, in fact, almost any quality of a person can in one way or another be subsumed under the leadership quality. Therefore, I decided to highlight the main qualities of a leader, which are worth focusing on if you strive to become a leader. IN in brief they are presented in the following diagram:

As you can see, all a person’s leadership qualities can be divided into 3 areas, each of which contains its own list of qualities:

1. Personal (personal) qualities of a leader.

2. Managerial and organizational qualities of a leader.

3. Psychological and social qualities leader.

Now let's look at all these areas and the leadership qualities that relate to them, in order and in more detail.

Personal (personal) qualities of a leader.

This includes those qualities that can be attributed directly to a person’s personality. They characterize, first of all, the leader himself, and not his relationships with the team and other people. Let's consider the qualities of a leader that are included in this group.

1. Self confidence. A leader is always confident in himself and in his actions; he knows that he is doing the right thing. – one of the most important leadership qualities, without which it will not be easy to become a leader. But this faith should by no means be “blind.” A leader must have adequate self-esteem, strong willpower, and well-developed intuition. He must clearly and clearly understand what he is going for and why, that is, he must be able to set goals for himself. It is almost impossible to convince a true modern leader and lead him astray from his intended path: he will move towards his goal, no matter what.

2. Active life position. The next most important personal quality of a leader is activity. A leader is always in the center of events, communicates a lot, is one of the first to learn important news, and therefore reacts to them before others, which means he is always one step ahead. This ultimately leads him to success.

3. Willingness to take risks. The personal qualities of a leader also include willingness to take risks. To achieve a goal, a leader is forced to take risks and takes risks quite often, because any movement forward is always associated with risk. But, of course, this risk is not thoughtless, but adequate and well calculated. Even if a risky step leads to negative consequences, the leader never stops - he analyzes his mistakes and moves on.

4. Initiative. Another personal quality of a leader is initiative. In any team, the initiative always belongs to the leader; he shows even more initiative in decisions concerning his personal life. A leader is not afraid to leave his comfort zone and make some changes: he does not wait for them to overtake him, he is the first to take the initiative and go towards changes.

5. Motivation. When talking about a person’s leadership qualities, one cannot fail to mention motivation. A leader is always driven by something, he knows why he is doing something, what he is going for, what he will get from it. A leader knows how to competently motivate not only himself, but also the team in which he works.

6. Honesty, integrity. The personal qualities of a leader must necessarily include the most basic: honesty and integrity. If a leader is caught in a lie or dishonesty, even if it is insignificant, he will very quickly lose trust and cease to be a leader. This cannot be allowed, so a leader must always be honest.

7. Subsequence. Another important personal quality of a leader is consistency in his actions. He doesn’t just go towards his goal, but always has a planned plan of sequential actions and is guided by this plan. His actions are always thoughtful and consistent, which helps him achieve success.

8. Responsibility. And, of course, the personal qualities of a leader will be incomplete if responsibility is not added to them. A leader must be able to take responsibility for decisions made, in no case should you shift it to others. If a leader is seen trying to evade responsibility, he will quickly lose his reputation and cease to be a leader. Leadership always presupposes full responsibility, there is no other way.

Managerial and organizational qualities of a leader.

The next group of leadership qualities includes everything that characterizes a leader’s ability to assemble his team and lead people - after all, it is by these criteria that we most often say that a person is a leader. Let's consider the qualities of a leader as a manager and organizer.

1. The ability to lead people. The leader’s personal qualities give him the opportunity to act as an authority that is listened to, trusted, and followed by other non-leaders. Leaders attract other people with their opinions, their ideas, their actions, their ideals, their ability to persuade. They are able to convey their ideas to the masses and always have their adherents and followers. Leaders create their teams that help them achieve their goals.

2. Organizational abilities. A leader is able not only to create a team, but also to organize its actions, inspire, motivate, etc., that is, organize the work of the team. A leader in a team is able to take on and successfully cope with it. Leadership qualities are always the qualities of a leader.

3. Vision of perspective. The qualities of a leader are different from the qualities ordinary person the fact that he always clearly understands the prospects for the development of the business he is involved in, and is able to convey this perspective to his team. He is able to highlight the most important from many little things, focus on it, and delegate more minor details to other team members.

4. Flexibility, maneuverability. A leader must be flexible and maneuverable in his affairs, he must be able to quickly navigate the situation and... But at the same time, maneuverability should not lead him away from moving towards his goal, it should simply give him the opportunity to choose the most safe way and “go around sharp corners.”

5. Diplomatic skills. The most important leadership qualities of a leader are the ability to be a diplomat. Moreover, as in communication with external environment, and within your team. A leader is always a diplomat who knows how to competently negotiate and diplomatically defend his position.

6. Willingness to support. The qualities of a leader as a creator and member of a team include the ability and willingness to provide support to like-minded people and followers. People will always support just such a leader who cares not only about his own interests, but about them too. Without this quality, a leader can quickly lose his authority.

Psychological and social qualities of a leader.

And finally, the last group of leadership qualities, which consists in the leader’s ability to build relationships within the team, within his team, in that social function which he takes upon himself. Let's consider these qualities of a leader.

1. Communication skills. A leader must be able to communicate. And not just communicate, but find a common language with people of different views, different ages, different social groups, different genders, different characters, etc. This is a very important quality of a leader, which helps him build and maintain his team.

2. Justice. The most important social role a leader's responsibility is to be fair and provide fair decisions to his team members. People need to know that they can always turn to a leader for advice and help, and get it. A leader for a team is a fair judge who objectively and impartially resolves all controversial situations.

3. Upholding the interests of the team. A modern leader-manager must care not only about his own interests, but also about the interests of his team, and be able to defend them before some external authorities, in the presence of external danger or threat.

4. Creating conditions for self-realization of followers. And finally, the social qualities of a leader should include providing opportunities for self-realization to his followers, his team, and perhaps even “growing” new leaders from its members. This is a very important leadership quality that will always be valued and respected by his followers and successors.

These are the qualities of a modern, good leader. Develop these qualities in yourself - and you, too, will join those who are able to lead. In other publications on I will look in more detail at how to develop leadership skills, so join the number of our regular readers and stay tuned.

Do not forget that leaders are not necessarily born (although this is possible), leaders are made, and this is quite real, the main thing is to set a goal for yourself and strive to achieve it. Thank you for your attention and see you again!

Depending on the mentality, field of activity and characteristics of the community of people, the leadership traits in demand may differ. What qualities does a true leader have in the universal sense, regardless of whether he is endowed with formal authority as a leader or has informal authority in a group or team?

Leader and leadership

What is leadership? A leader is a person who, thanks to his authority, the community gives the right to decide basic issues for everyone. Leadership is a set of qualities that allow one to gain this authority, a way of organizing influence.

From the time of Plato to the 19th century. it was believed that only individual and innate personality traits allow one to become a real leader. For example, Charles Darwin's cousin, Francis Galton, believed that leadership is an inherited talent.

Later, theories were put forward that it is quite possible to educate a leader, but only if one has the ability. Modern approach takes into account individual properties to a lesser extent, shifting the main emphasis to behavioral strategy. Now he is a person with the ability to inspire action.

How to identify leadership potential? The potential of a true leader is determined by:

Innate individual traits.
Purchased. Thanks to upbringing, training, self-education, experience.
Psychological attitude (vocation). Feelings, beliefs, ideas, self-images.

Being a leader is not a position, but a character.

Traits of a True Leader

The innate qualities of the owner themselves do not automatically make them a leader, but they help them become. The acquired qualities can turn you into an effective leader. But, without some individual qualities, it is difficult to become a real leader that people will voluntarily follow.

Character. Determined in relation to oneself and people, to things and activities. The character trait that immediately reveals a leader is will. The ability to consciously form a goal and concentrate on it. Self-regulate your own activity to achieve results. Basic volitional qualities:

Determination. A leader sees the main thing and does not lose it in many problems and trifles. The ability to concentrate on the expected result is also the ability to plan the path to achievement, as if watching a movie from the end. John Maxwell, who has written dozens of books on motivation, calls this property long-term vision.
Self-control and courage. A leader's behavior depends on his decisions, not his circumstances.
Independence, determination, perseverance. Ability to make decisions. Take full responsibility and complete what you start, regardless of failures.
Proactivity, initiative, curiosity. Be in the center of things and one step ahead of everyone else.
Performance. Oddly enough, diligence is also a trait of a true leader. After all, in order for the decisions made to lead to the achievement of the goal, it is necessary to work on them diligently and systematically.

Charisma. Exclusivity and personal appeal, inspiring unconditional faith in others in the capabilities of the owner.

The desire to manage people, expressed in organizational skills:

Ability to quickly find a solution to a problem.
. The ability to express oneself correctly and accurately.
A true leader will easily create a team. Can select the necessary personnel, find application for their abilities in the context of the assigned tasks, understands the psychology of people. Reveals their talents.
Ability to organize. Give instructions and commands or otherwise influence others. Including manipulating them.
Able to bear responsibility for the actions of subordinates.

Emotional competence. The ability to create an emotional microclimate in a community or team that is most suitable for quickly achieving your goals. Atmosphere is achieved through persuasion, suggestion or contagion. This is helped by:

Faith and passion.
Positive attitudes.
Energy.
Listening skills.
Fairness and rigor.
Ability to punish and reward.
Flexibility of behavior.
Generosity.
Sense of humor.
Eloquence. The gift of persuasion.
The ability to appreciate people.

Competence. It is not necessary to have the highest IQ, but to be effective and successful, you need to have some experience in troubleshooting problems and finding solutions.
Willingness to take risks. Inextricably, the ability to think analytically.
Reliability and consistency.
Knowing yourself, your strengths and weaknesses. And the ability to work on shortcomings and organically replace them with advantages.
Ability for self-learning and self-education. The desire to develop, not to stop developing. Striving for ideal.

A leader and a manager are not the same thing. The leader is endowed with formal, official authority, and the leader has the ability of psychological influence. Ideally, these two roles coincide.

You can try to cultivate real leadership traits in yourself, because it is not for nothing that the view is widespread that leaders are made, not born.

How to awaken the leader within you?

There are situations in life when latent (hidden) leadership qualities are activated in an ordinary person in a dangerous or tense situation. He takes responsibility and solves some vital issue. Such cases suggest that anyone can become a leader under certain conditions.

How to create the necessary atmosphere for awakening your leadership potential?

Develop abilities to.

In order to evaluate yourself, keep a notebook in which you write down your own positive and negative qualities, in your opinion and the words of your loved ones. Learn not to react painfully to criticism. Learn to logically refute every critical remark. Develop self-confidence. But don't confuse it with selfishness.
Make it a habit to make a plan for the next day. Every evening, describe what you managed to do. Celebrate your successes. Such a “diary” will allow you to identify your weak sides and will outline the path to their eradication.

Develop leadership behavior in the team and family.

Start small: organize interesting and active leisure time. Offer the best, in your opinion, solutions to problems at work. The main thing for a leader is to organize people.
Communicate more. Develop your communication skills at every opportunity. Know how to listen and hear others, and then draw your own conclusions.
Accept people for who they are. This will help to find the best use of their qualities. A true leader is not one who asks the question: “How can the team help me achieve my goal?” He asks himself, “How can I help them achieve our goal?”
Mentally play out dialogues to motivate fictitious interlocutors.
Practice self-control.

Learn to take initiative and responsibility.

Fear of criticism and failure is natural. But developing the ability to deal constructively with mistakes helps you grow. Be optimistic about failure. Fight the fear of failure.
Without patience and perseverance, success is impossible. Learn to concentrate.
A true leader chooses his own job: one that he likes or develops.
not only to others, but also to yourself. Train your will by giving up.
Show concern for others, but do not live with other people's problems.
Try not to accept imposed roles. Be yourself.

Set goals, make plans. Go towards achieving results. From less to more.

Set goals that are beyond your capabilities. They should not be vague, but only crisp and clear. Don't set unrealistic deadlines for implementation. Learn patience and perseverance.
Learn to plan. First write down the day, then the week.
"Laziness" and "leadership" incompatible concepts. Be active. Make every effort to achieve the desired result.
Read more, find out. After all, to own the World is to own information.
Perform your duties as responsibly as possible.
Record your achievements.

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Geniuses and Outsiders, notes that passivity is often a quality of people from poorer classes who are reluctant to take the initiative for fear of vulnerability and self-doubt. How to awaken the leader within you? Squeeze “a slave out of yourself drop by drop,” as Chekhov said.

External manifestations of leadership qualities

A dominant person in a community is not always active. But it is quite easy to identify it by external manifestations of leadership qualities:

They dress well. They're watching appearance, but without extravagance in the image. They have their own style.
They surround themselves with people.
They look straight into the eyes and confidently shake hands.
Direct the conversation when communicating.
They always listen to the speaker to the end and do not rush to answer.
Quite polite and tactful.
In the classroom they are placed at some distance from everyone in order to have an overview and not allow strangers into their personal space. But they don’t hide behind their backs.
Characterized by a confident gait with swinging arms.
They themselves volunteer to perform duties from which the majority remain silent.
They immediately grasp the essence of the problem.

It is very important to consider the implicit leader in the team in order to direct his activities for the benefit of the entire organization.

Woman leader

It is difficult for the weaker sex to dominate, especially in a male team. What special qualities of a real leader, besides the basic ones, should women cultivate in themselves in order to achieve success?

Control your emotionality. Social intelligence helps a woman feel relationships in a team, but emotions should not control reason.
Learn to build long-term perspectives.
Formulate thoughts clearly and specifically.
For a woman leader, an authoritarian management style is not always effective. It is best to use democratic.
Be prepared to take risks. Women's intuition is great for this.
Take criticism adequately.
Don't be afraid to use charm to win yourself over. But always separate work and relationships.

Leadership allows you to develop personally and experience the fullness of life. But only if you realize the uniqueness of your qualities. Simply adopting behavior and imitating qualities in order to feel elevated above others is unlikely to help you become a real leader.

You need to be yourself, find your talent, abilities, energy and devote all your time and energy to it. After all, being a leader is not only a reward, but also a heavy burden.

The main referents (signs) of leadership are:

High level of activity and initiative of a person when solving a group decision joint tasks;

Greater awareness of the problem being solved, the group members, and the situation as a whole;

Significantly expressed ability to influence other people;

Greater compliance of behavior with the opinions and values accepted in this group;

A more vivid manifestation of personal qualities that are standard for this group.

Among the most frequently mentioned personality traits include: dominance, self-confidence, emotional balance, stress resistance, creativity, desire to achieve, enterprise, responsibility, reliability in completing tasks, independence, sociability.

Let us dwell in a little more detail on each of the listed features.

Dominance translated from English means “dominance”, “predominance”, “influence”. It's about about dominance as a leader’s desire to influence other people. At the same time, it is necessary to constantly remember psychological side question. His influence should find an internal response among his subordinates. Otherwise, the leader’s desire to dominate will remain nothing more than a routine claim to power.

The next personality trait is called self confidence . IN difficult situation You can rely on such a person: he will support and protect. Such a leader provides a certain psychological comfort and increases motivation to complete the task. Subordinates, as a rule, feel very well the state of the leader, and the latter, no matter how the circumstances develop, should, at least outwardly, behave quite calmly and confidently.

Let's focus on two related personality traits - emotional balance and stress resistance . Emotional imbalance can reduce a person’s self-confidence, and thereby his business activity. But the leader is a living person. Constant suppression of negative emotional reactions, containing them in a public work environment can result in a number of unpleasant consequences for the individual - neuroses and those developing on their basis psychosomatic diseases. Therefore, the point related to the manager’s search for means of emotional release deserves attention. Means of relaxation should be sought in the structure of an individual’s leisure time, the forms of which are extremely diverse.

Emotional balance goes hand in hand with the individual's resistance to stress. Stress is overexertion, reducing vital activity, disorganizing behavior, weakening attempts to achieve a goal. The whole complexity of stress lies in the fact that the level of tension that is favorable for the effective functioning of some of us is completely unbearable for others. To different people Happiness requires varying degrees of stress.

Another personality trait is creativity. Translated, it means “the ability to creatively solve problems.” The ability of a leader to see elements of novelty and creativity in the activities of other people, and to support their endeavors.

The following two personality characteristics are: achievement drive and entrepreneurship. In close connection with them is personality's propensity to take risks.

The striving for achievement reflects the fundamental human need to achieve a goal. Such people most prefer situations in which they can take responsibility for solving a problem. They set fairly moderate goals for themselves, trying to ensure that the risk is largely calculated and predictable in advance. People who need to achieve a goal want a specific feedback informing them how well they are doing on the task. Perhaps this is why they feel great in business life: because it constantly creates situations with clear information about achieving success.

Now regarding two more fairly related personal characteristics - responsibility and reliability in completing the task.

We constantly feel the deficit of these human qualities in Everyday life, reaping the rewards of years of dismal irresponsibility. Meanwhile, once upon a time in Russia, responsibility and reliability were the calling cards of entrepreneurs. Considerable deals were concluded on the word of honor, and God forbid, it was possible to break the undertaken obligation: the offender would face big troubles, primarily financial ones, and they simply stopped doing business with him.

Undoubtedly, an important personal trait that ensures the success of actions in various fields life, including when making decisions, is independence. The main thing is that the manager has his own point of view on emerging problems, his professional and human face and supports this quality in his subordinates. Prominent entrepreneurs often encourage dissent in their companies if it serves the social and economic health of the latter.

And finally, the last personality trait discussed here is sociability . There is no particular need to prove how important it is in any activity.

I would like to especially note such a personal quality of a leader as charisma (Appendix 19) . The charismatic influence of a person is built on the strength of the leader's personal qualities or abilities. It is determined by the attraction of other people to the leader. Charismatic influence is entirely personal. Here are some characteristics of a charismatic personality:

- Energy exchange. It seems that this personality radiates energy and charges the people around him with it;

- Impressive appearance. A charismatic leader is not necessarily handsome, but he is attractive, has good posture and carries himself well;

- Independence of character. Does not rely on others in its pursuit of well-being and respect;

- Good rhetorical skills. He has verbal ability and interpersonal communication ability.

- Perception of admiration for one's personality. He feels comfortable when others express admiration for him, without falling into arrogance or selfishness;

- Dignified and confident demeanor. He looks collected and in control of the situation.

People are more likely to be influenced by those who have character traits they admire and who are their ideals, the ones they would like to be like.

We looked at a number of important personality traits. Of course, a person is not born with a ready-made set of these traits. All of them are a unique alloy, like natural features man and the socio-historical conditions of his life.

The main thing is that a person has a desire to improve himself, a clear understanding of the need to build his personality daily and hourly.

But the leadership structure is not exhausted by the two roles presented above (formal and informal). In the life of a team, different situations happen and in them the so-called situational leaders – people who are capable of leading a team for a certain period of time.

In addition, a team may consist of several microgroups, and they often have their own leaders. And they are sometimes capable of exerting a significant influence on the life of the team, especially in cases where one or another group occupies a dominant position in the team.

How to become a leader

Indeed, how do people become leaders? Does it come with experience, with age, with education, or is a true leader born that way?

The famous scientist, author of the book “Psychology of a Leader” A. Meneghetti, is convinced that a person receives certain inclinations of a leader from birth, but this does not mean that he will become a leader. To become a leader, you must achieve the appropriate level of culture, education, life experience and professionalism. Meneghetti identifies several steps on the path to leadership:

✓ The first step is culture and education . These include general culture (it is important to know the culture of your country and environment, as well as a little understanding of art, music, etc.), professional culture (to be a professional in your field) and diplomatic experience (the ability to create people who can realize goals, because the leader cannot find ready people).

✓ The second stage is ability to overcome stereotypes . This requires inner maturity. A leader must be able to rise above traditional values. This second aspect must always be in harmony with the first. You cannot offend people by destroying humanistic, ideological and other values; you must rise above them. The second level of leader formation cannot be achieved at a university or academy; only experience and life teachers lead to it.

✓ The third stage is knowledge of your unconscious . The unconscious is a storehouse of life and intelligence that we do not fully utilize. Over its history, humanity has developed many techniques for activating the potential stored in the human subconscious. Meditation techniques of Eastern origin are known. It turns out that true leadership is work, work and more work. First of all, work on yourself. And the innate inclinations of a leader are that internal potential that must be subjugated and directed into the right direction, otherwise a born leader will not go further than the leader of a neighborhood football team.

P. Senge, speaking about the formation of a leader, notes: “Such people cannot be created at all, because they create themselves. Most great leaders were not tall, thin, or particularly attractive. Often, they are rather mediocre speakers, do not stand out in the crowd, and their eloquence is not capable of igniting listeners. They tend to have clarity and persuasiveness in their ideas, depth of conviction, and a constant willingness to learn. They don’t have a ready answer for everything, but they know how to inspire confidence in others that together “we can learn everything we need to achieve what we want. The ability of such people to be natural leaders is a by-product of their entire life, subordinated to the development of the ability to formulate and persuade, listen to and evaluate the ideas of other people. They reflect on personal values and link their own behavior to them. If personal charisma (unaccountable attractiveness to others) does not rely on such efforts, then it is just style without substance. And then everyone who succumbs to the charm of an empty style loses the last ability to think for themselves and make reasonable decisions. Such a leader is dangerous both for society and for the organization.”