9 comments by 6 or more people

1. Fotini Savva

   After some thoughts I came up with 2 questions! Do effetctive leaders have common characteristics??? And if so what are they???

   A suggestion might be passion. Because passion is something that exists in people that they want to achieve something, a goal let’s say. So, are passion and having a goal common characteristics for effective leaders?

   08 Feb 2012, 13:38

2. Oritseweyinmi Barber

   Well, its funny because I think that wanting to work within a team because you believe in the power of teamwork and are passionate about your work means that you are interested in bringing people together to achieve positive results, which is in essence what leadership is all about : )

   As to your second question, I believe the answer is yes

   08 Feb 2012, 23:26

3. Fotini Savva

   Yes but believing in team power it doesn’t mean that you bring people together… You might set them tasks to achieve in individual level if, let’s say, you run out of time….

   08 Feb 2012, 23:46

4. Mohammad Sandouk

   as for your question about “common characteristic among effective leaders” i think i can save you some time by simply saying: no evidence at all points towards this assumption. Still the search for such characteristics can be quite interesting.

   09 Feb 2012, 00:38

5. Fotini Savva

   I appreciate your opinion Waseem but I want to challenge it a bit more (as you know)!! hahaha… :)
   Maybe not common characteristics but maybe common traits??? Like: Empathy, Direction, Communication, Flexibility or Conviction? One of them, some of them or none of them??

   09 Feb 2012, 01:08

6. Pinthida Thanatipanont

   I think the leader has to want/ be passionate about something – you’ve gotta ‘want’ it enough to have it. Once you have it/ accomplished the task/ goal, it can be said you’re effective.

   May be not in absolute term, but you’ve got to want it to get it. It might be leading on thoughts, on perspective, on the way to make art, etc… Picasso didnt wake up one day and wanted to change the world of art, but he wanted to make art. He was passionate enough to pursue and later one become famous for his way of painting. To me, an effective leader has to want to change, to do something, to be different, and not necessarily want to ‘lead’ – in the sense of “hey look at me, im so great, im taking the lead” but rather like ‘i dont like this, im gonna do something different in which I am reallly passionate about’ – the latter shows that this person is taking the lead already and this was because they WANT to change.

   Take Spiderman/ the Matrix for example – they both have superpower, they were not becoming leaders UNTIL they accept it, faced the fear, take on the responsibility – in accepting, they imply the ‘desire’ to lead already.

   What do you think?

   Ps. The guy I was talking about: Derek Sivers – a very successful enterpreneur, a vivid learn, and a leader in some sense :) I hope you find him interesting :)))))

   10 Feb 2012, 00:21

7. Ilektra-Maria Kaldi

   I tend to agree with Pinn to a certain degree, because if the leader doesn’t accept his/her role as a leader, then what’s the point?
   Personally, I believe that the leader needs to have a SWOT analysis, if you want, to identify what are his/her strengths, skills, abilities and so on. If you know yourself in the first place, then you can be an effective leader and drive the results with the team’s contribution.

   10 Feb 2012, 15:17

8. Abdul Iqbal

   consider a situation with 2 people with equal characteristics apart from one.
   1 wants to lead and the other does not want to lead.

   if they are both put in a same exercise, what would their performance be?

   13 Feb 2012, 13:21

9. Fotini Savva

   To your comment Abdul, I agree that the one with the “WANT” might be more effective with a higher performance, but this doesn’t mean that the other is not effective at all…

   13 Feb 2012, 13:36

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