Analysis of Leadership Traits, Challenges, and Resolution Methods

This essay delves into the multifaceted nature of leadership, examining essential qualities, common challenges, and effective conflict resolution methods. It highlights the importance of adaptability, strong communication, and integrity in leadership roles. The essay includes an interview with a team leader from a startup, providing real-world insights into the challenges of creating a positive work environment, coordinating diverse teams, and building trust. It also touches upon the Traits Theory of leadership, emphasizing inherited characteristics and the importance of situational factors. Recommendations include fostering inclusive team environments, implementing 'free talk' sessions for dispute resolution, and adopting negotiation-based conflict resolution methods to enhance team cohesion and productivity. The essay concludes by referencing relevant literature on leadership and its impact on organizational success, all available on Desklib for further study.

Running Head: LEADERSHIP 1
Leadership
Name:
Institution Affiliation:

LEADERSHIP 2
Leadership
A manager who is likewise a leader is a resource for any organisation. Having the
capacity to oversee others, as well as to motivate them to work their hardest is an incredible
trademark for any supervisor to have. The initiative administration can utilise authority abilities
in an administration position. In general, they get to set goals, support, motivate, contribute as
team leaders and encourage teamwork for the organisation to be able to succeed. These leaders
always need to be alert at all times to be able to know what do at the right time because a wrong
action at a wrong time or even a right decision at a wrong time and vice verse could harm to the
company. Leadership is about an organisation’s management setting and achieving goals and
objectives, taking difficult and decisive actions, outperforming the competition, and making
other desire to perform well.
A few people may feel that it is unfeasible to be both a leader and a manager,
guaranteeing that they are two different employments. While on one hand managers are
responsible for completing work, being in charge, underscoring systems and principles, and
deciding. Leaders are cooperative individuals, working with others to accomplish objectives. Be
that as it may, by joining the two parts, it is conceivable to motivate representatives to beat
difficulties and increment efficiency, consequently achieving more work. Additionally,
representatives who feel like a piece of a group rather than subordinates will probably take after
standards and rules.
Leadership is one of the most complex phenomena. This is because it varies from one
individual to another. This has led to the presence of different concepts in regards to good
leadership (Vann,2014). Whereas some might say that a good leader is one who ensures that

LEADERSHIP 3
there is discipline in his team by being strict on them, other individuals argue that a good leader
is one who accommodates every team member and works with them on an equal playing field.
Some so many previous writers have tried to explain the different characteristics of a good
leader. All these writers have different views of a good leader, however; their different opinions
on the topic seem to converge on specific points of a great leader. They include having excellent
communication skills, being time cautious, hardworking and persistent. These are all the critical
values that leaders need to motivate their teams to higher success rates. Effective leadership
requires a leader who has strong character, which is, someone who exhibits honesty, integrity
and is trustworthy. Strong leadership involves clear communication skills; this leader should
speak and also listen to their staff members, empathise with the staff members at all times and
above all respond to questions and concerns without being biased. True leadership can foresee
where the company is headed to and plans the necessary processes and steps towards that. These
type of leaders are in a position to visualise the possibilities, trends in the industry and also risks.
They always take the necessary steps to be able to make sure the company is balanced and safe.
Lastly, there is the productive leadership, these type of leaders show optimism and provide
positive energy for the staff. Leaders should be able to find solutions to challenges and should
reassure and inspire their team even when things don’t go according to plan.
I interviewed one of the team leaders in a local startup company. The team leader was
quick to point out that being a leader required patience understanding and commitment. This
would be compounded by the extra skills in communication which would allow the leader to be
able to give instructions to his team but also motivate them when the results are not going the
way they had expected. The leader I talked to described leadership as a process of guiding a
group of people towards the achievement of a specific goal. The leader was quick to point out

LEADERSHIP 4
that there are very many different ways of ensuring that a team is successful ineffective
leadership. He, however, says that there are other pressing challenges that many leaders face day
in day out.
Some of the challenges that we discussed included the ability to create a good working
environment for all the team members. The leader is tasked with the mandate of ensuring that the
team is able to have both time and the right equipment to work on a specific project. He quickly
cites that this challenge can be overcome through the creation of a simple and effective team
analysis schedule. This means that the team member will continuously update the team manager
on the proceedings.
One other major challenge that the leader faced was coordination of people from different
backgrounds. The fact that human beings come from diverse settings is a double-edged sword.
This is because while on the one hand, this might boost creativity through the bringing of a
different perspective, it might also cause problems as often it is hard to work in unison with other
individuals from different backgrounds immediately. The work of the team leader here is the
creation of a conducive environment that can not only accommodate people from diverse
backgrounds but also allow them to work in unison to achieve the set goals. The team leader here
has to devise ways that will not only create that relationship between the team members but also
a system that will enable the team members to be able to perform their duties in a synchronised
manner. In most cases, this is done through ensuring there is proper communication both at work
and outside work. By providing that the leader would have eliminated the image of
unsynchronization that has been brought by the diverse nature of people.

LEADERSHIP 5
There are also other challenges such as lack of confidence by some members of the team
towards the leader. The lack of trust between individuals causes this. The leader I interviewed
cited that some of the team members often do not agree with what the manager says, but they do
not do anything out of the fear against an authoritative figure. This is basically the conflict
resolution skills of the leader
The leader that I interviewed further added that he managed to become a good leader
through learning from his Father who was a soccer team’s captain. This was in line with the
Traits theory of leadership which implies that good leaders often have some form of inherited
leadership trait (Goleman,2017). Traits theory of leadership implications are that specific
characteristics produce particular patterns of behaviour, these patterns are always consistent
across different situations, and finally, people are born with these leadership traits. This type of
leadership as suggested by Ralph Melvin Stogdill in 1948 is mostly as a result of interaction
between individuals in social areas. Further surveys illustrate that these type of leaders are
characterised as “being credible” because they are mostly associated with four traits that are
Honesty, forward-looking, inspiring, and competent. This is what was being done in the earlier
days as royal children often inherited their parent's seats in different leadership positions. In
some instances however the inherited traits were sidelined, and situational factors became more
relevant for people who were to be in various leadership positions.
For the different challenges that the leaders experience, I would recommend a more
inclusive type of system to be adopted. This system would entail having an environment
whereby all the team members can interact freely with not only one another but also with the
team leader himself. This can be done through setting up of progress meetings constantly and
team building exercises such as mountain climbing and sports. This would improve not only the

LEADERSHIP 6
levels of interaction between employees but also between the employees and their managers. I
would also recommend the introduction of a “free talk” session. This would be aimed at solving
minor disputes that may come up from the team members as they work together.
In addition to that, I would recommend the adoption of one of the different conflict
resolution methods which include conflict avoidance, conflict diversion, conflict resolutions
using negotiations or conflict resolution through authority (Williams,2017). However, of this
three, I would recommend the use of conflict resolution in a team through negotiations that are
headed by the leader. This means that the leader is supposed to be an individual that has
excellent listening skills. It is only then that he can listen and be able to create a compromise for
the warring parties which would allow them to come to a meek able understanding. This also
means that the team leader should have the ability to be impartial in his or her decisions.

LEADERSHIP 7
References
Goleman, D. (2017).Leadership that gets results (Havard Business Review Classics).Havard
Business press.
Vann, B.A (2014) Development of the Vannsimpco leadership survey. Leadership styles swiss
Business School Journal of Applied Business Research,3,28-38
Williams, R (2017).leadership for school reform: do principal decision making styles reflect a
collaborative approach?. Canadian Journal of Education Administration and policy. (53)