Leadership in the 21st Century: Traits, Styles, and Challenges

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership, exploring various styles and their characteristics. It delves into the concepts of democratic and transformational leadership, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. The essay also examines the trait theory, discussing the essential qualities and attributes of effective leaders. Furthermore, it addresses the challenges of modern leadership, emphasizing the importance of adaptability, communication, and ethical decision-making. The paper discusses how leaders inspire and motivate their teams, and how they navigate political, economic, and environmental challenges. The role of honesty, listening skills, and the ability to foster positive change are also discussed. The essay concludes by considering the evolving nature of leadership and the characteristics necessary for success in the future.

Running head: LEADERSHIP
Leadership
Student’s name:
Name of the university:
Author’s note:

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Part 1
Efficient leadership means identifying the needed objectives to reach the organisation or
business goals and leadership also means to inspire others. Leaders must have a vision with
collaborative attitude in order to form a team with team members. In this regard, creating a
legitimate relationship with team members helps the team members to express themselves.
Making rapport with the team members assists to know the team's concerns and in this case,
team leaders can show the empathy. Showing empathy can create a good relation between
leaders and team members. Team members need to share the vision and negative feelings should
be omitted from the team (Northouse 2013). The best way to get better at it is with experience of
the leaders. Leaders don't focus on leading other people as one should never set out to lead
others. It is needed to set out to achieve a vision and inspire people. Leaders mainly work on
those four fundamental attributes, especially independence effective thinking, decision making,
creativity. If leaders already have a titled position, then, by all means, prioritize the people
skills. The most important of these is recognising and managing them. Beyond that, leaders
need to work on: communication, delegation, negotiation, and networking. As stated by Rowe
and Guerrero (2013), the team leader is the final arbiter. Teal leaders inspire others by engaging
people justly, managing employees within a team, acting with integrity and passion.
Team leaders must have consistency in performance as consistent leaders must get
respect and credibility by setting examples in the team. Consistency creates honesty in the team
as team leaders must be honest in work and in communication. Leadership is all about breaking
the obstacles with handwork and avoiding failure. In this regard, leaders need to assess the team
members effectively that he/she must have a direction towards the goals and aim must be
matched with organisational improvement. Leadership concept is related to the managing

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objectives of the organisation and team leaders can make the multidisciplinary team through
which they can share their vision (Gill 2011). Within a team, it is very much needed to
communicate with the right people and flexible communication sets the right attitude for the
team. Leaders need to set an expectation for the team members and efficient communication with
flexible approach can be helpful in order to fulfil the expectations. In addition, willingness to do
the work for the organisation's betterment can be developing feature as leaders must believe in
the idea of the idea of the organisational objectives.
Leadership cannot be maintained only through features as it is important to maintain
correct leadership style. A good leader can be autocratic, democratic or lassies fairer. However,
good leadership can lead to the organisation to meet the objectives. In this regard, developing
leadership capability can lead to a leader to be a transformational leader. This transformational
leadership concept starts with meeting the vision and goals of the organisation (Kark and Shamir
2013). A transformational leader should have a clear vision as he/she must be clear what the
team is going to achieve. In addition, as stated by McClesky (2014), transformational leaders
should communicate effectively with the team members and everyone needs to understand the
shared vision of the leaders. Transformational leaders can forecast the future of the organisation
and they set the target in long-term basis as they have the courage to take the risks. As supported
by Humphrey (2014), transformational leaders have the willingness to perform well with
mitigating the risks with perfect decisions and they have the courage to take a vision, for others
that can seem too impossible. One of the major features of transformational leaders is that they
have similarity with democratic leaders as they both listen to the team members and they do not
take the decision in one-hand. As opined by Mabey and Finch (2008), transformational leaders
are self-motivated and they earn the fuels by the motivation. People who work with

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transformational leaders can sense the motivation and people become passionate in working with
the leaders. Moreover, transformational leaders are inspiring through their deeds, works and
knowledge. William Edwards Deming could be one of the finest examples of transformational
leadership as he introduced Deming's quality management in the automobile sector. Not only
inspiration to create personal passion, their vision can change the organisational defectiveness In
this regard, transformational leaders know the employees very well who work with them and
they make people to feel important and create the ability to give their best. Most importantly,
transformational leadership style sets the standard with the organisation through communicating
expectation, goals and vision, by following these, one organisation can gain success as works
speak louder than words, leaders ability can evoke change.
There is a conflict on if a good leader is born or is transformed has been the billion dollar
question for all the assessors of a leader. The theory that best describes the leaderships is known
as the trait theory. This theory argues that the certain trait or combination of traits is common
factor among all the different leadership style. The physical and social characteristic as well the
understanding of the leaders traits are identified among personality. With experiences and
behavioural evolutions, one makes rises up to be a leader (Eseryel 2014).
This particular essay analyses the two different approaches of leadership and combines
the trait of the leaders. The most important part of democratic leaders is that they are people
oriented. The political leaders have shown their traits as parallel to the democratic leaders.
Through history, the democratic leaders have been shown their ruling pattern in their team. The
leaders choose exceptional ways to achieve the goals and objectives of the organisation. They are
more defined as a instrument to goal achievement (Prabhakar and Yaseen 2016).

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The leadership functions as the formal authority, as they are in charge of achieving the
ultimate goal of a organisation. Cartwright and Zander (2014) viewed leadership as a function
that encompasses the group member’s activities that a desired result is achieved. The democratic
groups tend to sustain the democratic process. A democratic leader thinks of its people and their
responsibility as well as its own. The status of the leaders does not matter to them. Rather they
are more people oriented and take in to consideration about his team or group. The group’s
decision-making ability is dependent upon the democratic leaders. The democratic leader also
take is in to consideration about the group’s perspective in various situations (Mwenda and
Wachira 2015).
Different leadership style is effective in different situations. Not all kinds of leaders are
equipped with the right kind of traits and tools that can manipulate or influence people in
different situations. The willingness of skills and knowledge sharing people works best in terms
of democratic group. A team where every individual feels valued and their opinion is solicited,
as well as incorporated in the final decision are very important for this kind of leadership to
execute the task. This leader also encourages a level of creativity while they also have a stake in
increasing commitment of the individual member (Prabhakar and Yaseen 2016). For this kind of
leader, the quality of work is more important than productivity and efficiency. Effective service
industry has more concentration of this kind of leaders. In addition, there are many situations
where they are not effective in defining the way. Where there are many roles or unclear role in
process in place of leader’s role, democratic leaders are proved ineffective in their task (Iqba et
al. 2015). Their friendship and group relationship matters most for these members. Where the job
requires an individual to be monotones the democratic proves to be ineffective. The style is
important for an organisation to share and induce the knowledge and ideas to be consulted.

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Hence, the new ideas get the approval of all the stakeholders in place. Thus, this leadership is
also known as the participative leadership as the leader’s participation is required in groups’
activity (Mwenda and Wachira 2015).
There are many characteristics to democratic leaders that can be proved essential for
controls and leading the team. This kind of leader initiates debate, encourage ideas to be
brainstormed and makes the team member feel good about their position and work, an opposite
compared to the autocratic leaders. They also develop creative solution for their problems and
issues. The democratic leaders also opine their views and communicate the organisations vision
with their groups members (De Board 2014). They take a clear vision in their mind about where
they wants to see the organisation in the next few years. The democratic leaders also takes
control of their teams and needs guidance and control from other authority. This kind of leaders
takes in to consideration about the decisions that needs to be made. As the democratic leaders
need to interact with the every individual member of their organisation, they must decide on the
behaviour and what traits of people are fitted to the different organisational activity.
The best example of a democratic leader is Steve Jobs, the creator of Apple Inc. He is one
among the most celebrated participative leader in the world. The reason of the company’s
success is because the participation trait of the owner (Tucker 2017).
Part 2
In today’s world, leadership requires new values. A leader is no longer a person who
remains limited to making an inspiring and good speech but faces huge challenges politically,
economically and environmentally. Thus, leader must possess the quality of convincing others
for changing habits that are destructive, focus more on participation of people and ensure being

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good communicators (Schalock and Verdugo 2012). Unlike past, in today’s world we face more
threats from within therefore, focus and habits needs to change for reflecting the threats and as
leaders one must have the moral and conviction for not only convincing people but also
advocating a change which is positive.
Thus, convincing people for ensuring positive changes like changing habits for better
sustenance on earth makes a true leader. Recognition of leadership skills is important and
followers must elect or choose leaders who provide a reflection of the moral values that they
possess (Ishak and Bakar 2012). In today’s world, poverty is a major challenge faced by the
leaders. Although they make speeches but only few leaders incorporate the promises made and
materialize them into plans for overcoming such plight. Thus, it is necessary for people to choose
a leader who is able to incorporate positive changes.
Today’s leaders must possess the quality of listening to everyone’s solutions and inputs
that includes both the youths as well as seniors. This will enable the leaders to understand the
fresh view that they possess or have reached with the years of experience achieved. One of the
professors of a renowned university in the United States has thus stated that leadership is
necessary in the coming decade and one can find him (Sallis, E., 2014.). According to him, if
people want a great leader then one should not imagine that it is a way of making everyone
happy. However, this important issue needs consideration while contemplating leadership in the
present world scenario. Things that have been decided and put to action might not impress
everyone, but as long as the change the positive and positive change ensured people must accept
with an open mind.
Thus, leadership in today’s world comprises of approaches that are not only open but also
transparent and the visions and goals are communicated effectively so that everyone have the

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time for thinking about the changes that are incorporated (Rock 2014). However, challenges and
styles of leaders will drastically change in years to come and the results believed to positive in
ensuring a better and stronger future.
However, according to me there are certain characteristics that I possess which ensures
good leadership qualities. I possess the quality of honesty in all my dealings that reflects in all
my doings. While working with a team I have the power of identification of the strengths of the
team thereby helping me to capitalize which indicates my power of delegation. I have the power
to succinctly and clearly communicate to the team about their vision and make them work
towards achieving the goal thereby reflecting my strong communication skills. I am not only
confident but also calm which an important quality of a leader is. I am also hardworking and is
very much committed to what I do. Moreover, I possess positive attitude that will help me in
keeping my team motivated. Apart from that, I am creative and handle situation that needs
proper guidance and quick decision. I also have a strong intuition and the power of predicting
things that are uncertain and possess higher risk. I possess the power to inspire others through
achieve a positive approach towards life and work. Further, I believe in following an approach
believed to be one of the key qualities of good leaders
This kind of characteristics I believe is fit for transformational as well as democratic
leadership. In transformation leadership, leader possesses the qualities of transforming his or her
followers. Here the leaders are not only charismatic but also face challenges with clear purpose
and excitement (Onorato 2013). They are also good communicators. In democratic leadership the
leadership, share the decision making with his followers. The leaders here not only promote the
needs and desire of the group members but also believe that everyone should belong to the
process of decision-making.

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The leadership styles that I will be having are considered being the democratic leadership
style as well as transformational leadership style. As a democratic leader, I would be
encouraging as well as have the genuineness to seek the input of other individuals within a
group. I will do the active promotion of sharing ideas, so that all individuals with varied
proficiency levels as well as abilities are having the capability for putting forward their opinions.
The key function of having the democratic leadership style will be revolving around the aspect of
creating the structural aspect that is supporting as well as encouraging forethought. In respect of
following the democratic leadership style, it would be necessary for me towards having
engagement with the entire team in respect of making determinations of the activities as well as
other methods (Choudhary 2013). The democratic structure does the most effective functioning
when the roles as well as responsibilities are explained in a clear way. Moreover, I would
provide a clear definition of the various methods that are there. For doing this, I would build a
clear structure in respect of the democratic method as well as in what ways various decisions are
being undertaken within the group. I would be interested in knowing the process to do the
initiation of a discussion process as well as setting a timeline regarding when the decisions
should be undertaken. I would also be inviting the viewpoints of others, In this regard, I would
be establishing a structure to provide as well as assist feedback (Giltinane 2013).
As a democratic leader within an organisation, I would be doing the distribution of
responsibility among the team for facilitating participation in making decisions. I would also be
empowering the team members so that they are able to do the accomplishment of their
accountabilities. The aspect of empowerment will comprise of offering training as well as
education essential regarding the completion of task that has been delegated. Another significant
role of mine, as a democratic leader would be ensuring democratic forethought to make team

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decisions (Boykins 2013). This aspect will be explaining that as a democratic leader, I should be
acting as a mediator as well as facilitator among the members of the team as well as ensuring that
there occurs the maintenance of an organisational environment that is considered being healthy
as well as respectful.
As a transformational leader within an organisation, I would be having a vision of what I
would be interested in achieving and also, the capability for communicating in a clear manner
this vision within the establishment so that everyone will be having the capability for
understanding what is required for actualizing this vision. As a transformational leader, I would
require having the courage such as having the eagerness for taking on new challenging aspects,
undertaking calculated risks, making decisions that are considered being tough as well as having
the willingness to do the creation of a vision as well as making the tough decision essential for
achieving my vision. A a transformational leader, I would be having the motivational traits that
are considered being necessary. As a transformational leader, I would be having the capability
for inspiring other individuals and convincing them to follow my vision and executing it on all
the organisational levels. In this regard, another important trait that I would like to follow is
having individual interaction (Hendriks 2014).
As a transformational leader, I would be having the ability for influencing everyone in
my team individually. Moreover, being a transformational leader, I would be setting a standard
that I would like everyone in the organisation to be following. I would be communicating my
vision in a clear manner, my expectations as well as, in what ways this standard will be getting
carried out all through the establishment. I would also be required focusing my attention on the
organisational team members as well as working hard for helping them in achieving their
objectives. For managing the delivery of my vision, as a transformational leader, I would be

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required combining the efficient project management with the change management. This will
assist me in delivering the changing scenarios that is required with the full assistance of my team
members (Onorato 2013). I would also be communicating the roles as well as responsibilities of
every team member in a clear manner as well as connecting these aspects to my plans. I should
also be setting the SMART objectives in respect of all individuals, which will include certain
short-term objectives helping them in staying encouraged.

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