Leadership Attributes and Their Importance in Organizations

This article discusses the importance of honesty, competency, and inspiration as essential attributes for demonstrating leadership. It assesses the leadership attributes demonstrated by Jeffrey Robert Immelt, the former chairman and CEO of General Electric, and justifies whether or not they worked for the organization. The article concludes that Immelt's leadership attributes did not work for the organization, as he lacked motivational and inspirational qualities and failed to maintain honesty in the face of crisis.

Running head: LEADERSHIP ATTRIBUTES
LEADERSHIP ATTRIBUTES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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LEADERSHIP ATTRIBUTES
1. Describe the essential attributes it takes to demonstrate leadership, including the
acquisition of those attributes.
The first is honesty. It is an obvious fact that honesty is not only an attribute
demonstrated by leaders, but also for every individual (Othman & Rahman, 2014). However, for
those who hold the crucial post of leadership, honesty becomes even more important because
people follow leaders. Honest leaders in the contemporary world are hard to find simply because
of the rising competition. Therefore, it is a big challenge and quality for today’s leaders to
demonstrate leadership. Acquiring honesty however is not easy because the leader has to fight
with the dishonesties of others and resist him or her from the temptation to cheat.
The second attribute is competency. Leaders need to be competent because it reflects on
the entire organization they are running. It is but important to understand that competency does
not just mean hiding the incompetency (Gritzo, Fusfeld & Carpenter, 2017). Competency is
demonstrated by the actions taken and the decisions made by the leader. It is a trait that is
acquired by striking a balance between arrogance and competence.
The third and very important attribute is being inspirational. A leader must possess the
ability to inspire others. He or she must have the ability to show people the bigger picture in life
and inspire them to follow it. A leader could acquire this attribute by attaining the ability to tell
stories of inspiration and then practically include those in his or her every behavior.
2. Assess whether or not the leadership attributes demonstrated by an administrator within
the organization you chose in Module One are working for the organization.
The organization chosen for the purpose is General Electric, the U.S. based
conglomerate. Jeffrey Robert Immelt was the chairman and CEO of General Electric. He served

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the company from 2000 till 2016 before he finally resigned in 2017. Immelt is said to
demonstrate democratic style of leadership where he is collaborative and interactive with this
subordinates. He used to possess a checklist on the attributes a leader must have that shows his
commitment towards his role. His tenure is characterized by heavy dipping in stock prices and
rise in income. Ten years after Immelt took over the leadership role, the company’s stock price
dropped 61%, one of the worst in its history. In addition, GE even paid out close to 90 million
US dollars in dividends. The strategies he applied to shrink the company and save it from
financial bankruptcy have been criticized heavily. Prior to Immelt’s leadership, GE traded shares
at about 40 US dollars per share. This came down to around 25 US dollars per share in 2015.
3. Justify, using evidence, your assessment of whether or not the leadership attributes are
working for the organization2
As mentioned in the previous section, the leadership attributes demonstrated by Immelt
have apparently not worked for the organization he led. General Electric under Jack Welch was
at the peak of success and the company’s values saw record increase of approximately 40% from
1981 until 2001 (Forbes.com, 2018). Welch also expanded GE’s business into other areas where
no one ever thought it would bloom. These factors demonstrate that the leadership qualities of
Welch had worked significantly for the organization. In contrast to this, Jeff Immelt lacked
motivational and inspirational qualities (Johnson, 2017). He did not encourage innovation and
motivation and that was what required for the company after Welch resigned. He failed to
maintain honesty in the face of crisis.

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References:
Forbes.com. (2018). GE: A Total Leadership Failure. Retrieved from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2015/04/15/ge-a-total-leadership-failure/
#23e4e1fe5699
Gritzo, L., Fusfeld, A., & Carpenter, D. (2017). Success Factors in R&D Leadership: Leadership
Skills and Attributes for R&D Managers Analysis of data from a large-scale survey
reveal the behaviors, skills, and attributes that distinguish successful R&D
leaders. Research-Technology Management, 60(4), 43-52.
Johnson, T. P. (2017). Exploring the Impact of Leadership Experience and Learning Modality to
Produce Transformational Leadership Attributes (Doctoral dissertation, Colorado
Technical University).
Othman, Z., & Rahman, R. A. (2014). Attributes of ethical leadership in leading good
governance. International Journal of Business and Society, 15(2), 359.