Leadership Qualities and Team Performance

This assignment examines the crucial role leadership qualities play in influencing team performance and achieving organizational objectives. It delves into different leadership traits, theories, and styles, illustrating their effectiveness through real-life examples such as Starbucks and Toyota. The analysis highlights how strong leaders inspire, motivate, and guide their teams, fostering collaboration, commitment, and success.

Running head: LEADERSHIP- A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE
Leadership- A Critical Perspective
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1LEADERSHIP- A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Analysis:.................................................................................................................................2
Traits:.................................................................................................................................2
Emotional Stability:...........................................................................................................3
Dominance:........................................................................................................................3
Enthusiasm:........................................................................................................................3
Bold:...................................................................................................................................3
Charisma:...........................................................................................................................4
Learning:............................................................................................................................4
Team Orientation:..............................................................................................................4
The Relation between Leadership Traits, Motives and Effectiveness:..................................5
Examples:...............................................................................................................................5
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................6
Reference:..................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction:
Leadership is considered as one of the key strength of every business organization
(Northouse, 2015). Efficient leadership paves the path of organizational success. There are
many leaders in world that have set an example for others by their effective leadership
quality. The market competitiveness has been increased since past few years, which leads
many business leaders to incorporate many efficient strategies within the organizational
structure to earn the desired target. Effective leadership consists of several traits and qualities
that play crucial role in the effectiveness of the leaders. Leadership traits and effectiveness
are interrelated. The success of the company is highly relied on these two factors (Dinh et al.,
2014).
The following article has concentrated on the relation between the leadership traits
and its effectiveness. It has discussed about various theory and examples to provide a
transparent and broader picture of effective leadership quality.
Analysis:
Traits:
There are many theories that have enlightened various aspects of effective leadership,
such as- Great-man Theory, Behavioural Theory, Contingency Theory, transactional theory,
Transformational Theory and Trait Theory (Chemers, 2014). These theories have discussed
about different aspects of leadership quality. According to the trait theorists, leadership is
mainly based on some key traits that distinguish leaders from other team members. A person
must possess these skills to become an effective leader. There are two types of traits, one type
of traits that can be learned by a person and one type of traits that are inherent (Day et al.,

3LEADERSHIP- A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE
2014). Many researches claim that there are some key traits that must be possessed by the
leaders to guide any organization on the right path, such as-
Emotional Stability:
An effective leader must be emotionally stable, so he can support his teammate to
take efficient and decisions to stimulate the organizational performance. Many researches
claim that leaders must be psychologically matured enough. During leadership, a leader may
have to take many effective and strong decisions. It is important to be matured enough to take
these decisions (Landis, Hill & Harvey, 2014).
Dominance:
Leaders must have good control over their own team. It is also evident that many
leaders dominant their teammates, which is not suitable to maintain healthy relation within
the team. However, leaders need to maintain control over the teammates to lead them to the
right path (Ghasabeh, Soosay & Reaiche, 2015).
Enthusiasm:
Leaders must be active to play their role and responsibilities towards the organization,
so they can motivate their subordinates. The key role of a leader is to motivate their
teammates to perform their duty in an appropriate manner. In order to perform this role,
leaders must be active and expressive. He must be energetic to influence his teammates.
Otherwise, subordinates will not be able to participate in the organizational function
(Ghasabeh, Soosay & Reaiche, 2015).
Bold:
Leaders must be willing to take new risks. It is the responsibility of the leader to
support his team in any situation. He must be able to face various challenges and risks while
supporting or motivating his team. It is one of the key features of the effective leaders. He

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must confident to lead his team. Otherwise, he will not be able to perform his role effectively
(Marion & Gonzales, 2013).
Charisma:
Effective leaders must have charismatic personality, so he can influence other
teammates. The personality of the leaders plays major role to influence teammates. It is often
evident that subordinates are majorly affected by the working style and leadership quality of
the leaders. The influential character of the leader may have a great impact on the employees
and it may influence them to shape their behaviour accordingly to achieve the organizational
target (Ghasabeh, Soosay & Reaiche, 2015).
Learning:
Good leaders always encourage their subordinates to learn. They know the value of
learning. They appreciate their employees for adopting new and efficient techniques. Great
leaders often share their experience and learning s with their teammates to let them learn
from those experiences. It puts significant impact on the behaviour and performance of the
employees. Hence, one must allow his subordinates to learn (Marion & Gonzales, 2013).
Team Orientation:
It is primary responsibility of a team leader to provide a clear idea to the team
members about their role and responsibility towards the organization. Thus, leaders must
have the potential to communicate with their subordinates. He must maintain regular
communication with the employees to know about the challenges they are facing in the
organization and resolve their issues. In order to motivate employees, it is important for every
leader to often meet with the teammates. By such practices, leaders can share their own
experience, vision and mission with the employees. It is highly beneficial for the leaders to
establish a strong bonding with the employees (Sethuraman & Suresh, 2014).

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The Relation between Leadership Traits, Motives and Effectiveness:
These previously mentioned traits are highly required for being an effective and
efficient leader. These traits put significant impact on the effectiveness and motive of the
leadership. As discussed in the previous section, leaders must have a particular kind of
personality to influence teammates (Amanchukwu, Stanley & Ololube, 2015). It is evident
that subordinates are greatly influenced by the behaviour and skills of the leaders. Renowned
leaders often used their special traits to interact with the teammates. It helps them to motivate
them to work as a team to earn the desired common goal. Leaders can use their traits in both
positive and negative manner. It depends on the motive of the leader. The style of the
leadership is highly dependent on the circumstances and working environment of the
organization. Leaders use various leadership styles in different situations. In order to enhance
the team performance motivate team members, efficient leaders often communicate with the
team members and influence them by their charismatic personality. It affects employees to
participate actively in the organizational function. Traits lead leaders to decide their motives.
At the same time, it affects their leadership skills and put remarkable impact on the behaviour
of the subordinates. There are many employees in the organization. It is not possible for the
leaders to address each of the employees individually. By using effective traits, such as-
charismatic personality, interaction skills, self confidence and so on, leaders can motivate all
the employees altogether. It is often evident, that employees are often affected by the stories
and vision mission shared by the leaders (Antonakis & House, 2014). It encourages them to
shape their behaviour and adopt organizational strategy to gain the expected target.
Examples:
Toyota is one of the renowned car companies that have put strong footprint in the car
industry by its performance. However, it has faced crisis recently where lawsuits were filed
against the organization due to some faults in the car. Jim Lentz, the CEO of the organization

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has taken a notable initiative to deal with the situation. Instead of letting the PR team tackle
the issue, the CEO decided to interact with the consumers via Dig Dialogue. He answered all
the queries of the consumers. This works on the favour of the organization. His leadership
skill motivates his subordinates to stand together by the side of the organization during this
emergency ad perform in an efficient manner to for the betterment of the organization. Thus,
it can be stated that the communication skill and leadership traits of the Jim Lentz has
affected the behaviour of his team members in a significant manner. By such practices the
organization has successfully overcome all the issues as a team (toyota.com, 2017).
Another example of effective leadership is given by the CEO of Starbucks. In 1997,
the organizational management of Starbucks faced a crisis due to the murder of one of their
staffs in robbery. The reputation of the organization was at stake. The CEO of the
organization has taken a notable step to resolve the issue. He visited the family of the
employee ad provide all the monetary and moral support to them. It helps organization to
overcome the crisis soon. This charismatic leadership capability of the CEO plays major role
to motivate his employee to stay together and work hard for the organization. It has increased
the commitment level of the employees towards the organization. It is also an exemplary
example of effective leadership. It can be stated by analysing the example that the
understanding skills and matured personality of the leader has influenced him take the right
decision on the right time. At the same time, it is highly influential for his teammates as well.
It helps them to understand the importance of tam work as well as how to maintain strong and
transparent relation within the organization (starbucks.in, 2017).
Conclusion:
As per the previous discussion, it can be stated that leadership quality plays major role
to affect teammates to achieve the organizational objective. There are many exemplary

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examples of leadership skills that have set an example for others on how to lead an
organization towards the right direction. Traits are an integral part of the effectiveness of the
leadership and the motive of the leadership. A person that has all the traits of becoming an
effective leaders can use his traits to affect his teammates and others.

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Reference:
Amanchukwu, R. N., Stanley, G. J., & Ololube, N. P. (2015). A review of leadership theories,
principles and styles and their relevance to educational
management. Management, 5(1), 6-14.
Antonakis, J., & House, R. J. (2014). Instrumental leadership: Measurement and extension of
transformational–transactional leadership theory. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(4),
746-771.
Chemers, M. (2014). An integrative theory of leadership. Psychology Press.
Day, D. V., Fleenor, J. W., Atwater, L. E., Sturm, R. E., & McKee, R. A. (2014). Advances
in leader and leadership development: A review of 25years of research and
theory. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(1), 63-82.
Dinh, J. E., Lord, R. G., Gardner, W. L., Meuser, J. D., Liden, R. C., & Hu, J. (2014).
Leadership theory and research in the new millennium: Current theoretical trends and
changing perspectives. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(1), 36-62.
Ghasabeh, M. S., Soosay, C., & Reaiche, C. (2015). The emerging role of transformational
leadership. The Journal of Developing Areas, 49(6), 459-467.
Landis, E. A., Hill, D., & Harvey, M. R. (2014). A synthesis of leadership theories and
styles. Journal of Management Policy and Practice, 15(2), 97.
Marion, R., & Gonzales, L. D. (2013). Leadership in education: Organizational theory for
the practitioner. Waveland press.
Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.

9LEADERSHIP- A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE
Sethuraman, K., & Suresh, J. (2014). Effective leadership styles. International Business
Research, 7(9), 165.
starbucks.in. (2017). starbucks.in. Retrieved 10 August 2017, from http://www.starbucks.in
toyota.com. (2017). Toyota.com. Retrieved 10 August 2017, from http://www.toyota.com