an effective leader needs to be a good listener essay

• Entertainment
• Environment
• Information Science and Technology
• Social Issues

Home Essay Samples Education Listening

The Role of Leadership and Effective Listening in the Efficiency of a Team

*minimum deadline

Cite this Essay

To export a reference to this article please select a referencing style below

• College Experience
• Early Childhood Education
• Homeschooling
• High School
• Environmental Education
• Scholarship

Related Essays

Need writing help?

You can always rely on us no matter what type of paper you need

*No hidden charges

100% Unique Essays

Absolutely Confidential

Money Back Guarantee

By clicking “Send Essay”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement. We will occasionally send you account related emails

You can also get a UNIQUE essay on this or any other topic

Thank you! We’ll contact you as soon as possible.

The Hired Site and Service use cookies to improve your experience. For further detail on how we use cookies, including necessary cookies already in use and how to remove cookies from your browser check out our Cookie Policy .

Why Good Listeners Make For Great Leaders

Subscribe to the Hired Download : our newsletter for top talent like you!

Other topics

While powerful leaders are often thought of as charismatic and dominant, data shows that introverted leaders are often just as, if not more, effective than their more gregarious counterparts. One advantageous characteristic of more introverted leaders is their listening abilities. Whether you’re a natural listener or need to work on it, read on for insights into why it’s important to really hear—and retain—what your colleagues and peers are telling you.

Listening first can help you make less emotional decisions

Leaders will inevitably encounter stressful or tense circumstances since it’s naturally a part of the job, and practicing listening can actually help you diffuse the situation and make a more well-thought out decision. Rather than practicing brute force if something isn’t going your way, listening to your team can often reveal insights you wouldn’t otherwise happen upon, as well as give you some time to collect your thoughts and any emotions about the situation—ultimately leading to a more level-headed decision.

Good listeners are better at anticipating problems

Keeping an ear to the ground can help leaders know what’s coming, as employees who feel heard are not only likely to continue keeping their managers in the loop, but also more apt to share their feelings and other information that might help to make better leadership decisions. While ineffective listeners can risk missing important intel in exchange for pushing their own agendas, those who take the time to understand their employees’ concerns can often foresee problems before they happen.

It contributes to building trust and loyalty

Listening can be powerful not only in helping you make better decisions, but also because it’ll secure buy-in and respect from your team. While it’s important for leaders to set clear boundaries between themselves and their employees, it’s just as important for everyone to feel part of a team—and that team needs to include you. Leaders who ignore their team’s thoughts risk burning bridges and breaking down trust, whereas those who learn to listen earnestly are more likely to gain loyalty.

They understand the difference between listening and acting

While listening is important for the reasons mentioned above and many others, good leaders also know when and when not to act on what they hear. Having a good sense of your team members’ frustrations and limitations can make you better-equipped to help them, but strong leaders understand that consensus-based decision-making isn’t always preferable—and know how to listen effectively without making undeliverable promises in response to what they’re hearing.

Tips for listening more effectively

• Make your goal to understand, not to reply: It can be tempting to start formulating your responses as someone is speaking, but instead practice listening with the goal of understanding what the other person is saying. It’s OK not to have a response to everything—even as a leader—and allowing for some silence can often draw out additional thoughts from your team members.
• Ask questions: While having a pre-thought out response to everything can make it seem like you’re not actually listening, asking for further detail does the opposite: It indicates that you’re actually thinking through what you’re being told to the point of having additional questions about it. Doing so can not only help the speaker feel heard, but also get you closer to the heart of what they’re actually saying—whether that’s because you require more information that wouldn’t otherwise have been provided or because they won’t disclose everything until they feel comfortable.
• Avoid interrupting:  Regardless of your position, inserting your thoughts in the middle of someone’s sentence is generally regarded as rude—but subordinates won’t often complain to their superiors. Even if you have something of immense importance to add, do your best to hold your tongue until the other person has finished their thought.
• Put distractions away:  It seems obvious, but avoid looking at your phone, computer, Apple Watch, or other distracting devices when you’re trying to listen intently. Particularly for executives who are constantly bombarded with emails and other requests, it can be tempting to always have a handle on what’s incoming, but try to prioritize face-to-face conversations when you’re having them.

Related Programs

Comprehensive industrial hygiene, related articles, a holistic approach to occupational safety and health, how increasing employee engagement improves your environmental health and safety efforts, leadership development (infographic), using effective listening to improve leadership in environmental health and safety.

by Erica Hersh

Every day, environmental health and safety professionals make a myriad of decisions using their technical skills, which have far-reaching impacts for both organizations and the public at large. But while those technical skills are crucial, making the right decisions goes beyond this knowledge. Determining the best way to meet the needs of your colleagues and employers, as well as enlisting them to help you meet your goals, takes effective listening.

What is Effective Listening?

Effective listening, a more active form of listening, is a process that goes beyond simply hearing. While you hear with your ears, you listen with your entire body, including your ears, eyes, heart and brain.

“The overarching principle of effective listening is to seek first to understand, then to be understood,” says Rick Fulwiler, PhD, CIH, CSHM, President of Transformational Leadership Associates, a program director at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the former Director of Health and Safety Worldwide at Procter and Gamble. “It requires much more energy than just passive listening, but you will not be as successful without effective listening skills.”

Effective listening, according to Fulwiler, is about words, dance, and music – the other person’s words, tonality, and body language. This is what listening with your entire body is about. It means going beyond someone’s words by paying attention to body language how the words are spoken (music) and putting this into the context of what you know about this individual.

Being able to listen effectively is a skill that must be learned and practiced. This is particularly true in fields such as environmental health and safety, where technical skills are often emphasized over soft skills, such as communication.

How to Listen Effectively

Effective listening is not something that comes naturally to many people. Being able to listen effectively – and then use these skills for influential leadership – is a skill that must be learned and practiced. This is particularly true in fields such as environmental health and safety, where technical skills are often emphasized over soft skills, such as communication.

However, there are many barriers to effective listening, particularly in our modern world. According to Fulwiler, some of the most common are:

• Prejudging the person you need to listen to : People often judge others on qualities such as their appearance, background, or language barriers. However, these judgments can get in the way of truly listening to the message the person is trying to deliver.
• Formulating a response or rebuttal before someone is finished with their message : If you are thinking about how you will respond to someone before they’ve completed their thought, you’re not listening to their complete message. Fulwiler notes that refraining from doing this requires a lot of discipline, because “most of us are active problem solvers.”
• Listening just for facts : Communication is primarily conveyed by words, tone, and body language – but research has shown only seven percent of a message is expressed by words. This makes it even more crucial to embrace effective listening. If you do not pay attention to the emotions behind the facts, as well as expression through body language, you might miss what is driving the message.
• Misunderstanding cultural cues : As our lives become increasingly global, it may be hard to understand the culture of the person you are talking to, or at least understand how it may be different. Without this awareness, it can be difficult to determine the nuances and motivations of what someone is saying.
• Multitasking : With advances in technology, there are more opportunities to multitask than ever. However, if you are looking at your phone while someone else is talking, you cannot listen effectively.

Building positive relations is an important part of leadership, and listening is a critical part of building good relationships.

Once you recognize these barriers and how they might impact your listening skills, you can work on improving your effective listening skills. There many ways to do this, including:

• Reminding yourself that there is a difference between hearing and listening. You might hear what someone else is saying, but ask yourself if you’re truly listening.
• Asking others if you are a good listener. If they say that you are not, ask them what they feel keeps you from being one and concentrate on those weak points.
• When you’re in a situation where you need to truly listen, reminding yourself to seek to understand first and then be understood.
• Focusing on the words, tonality, and body language of the other person. Try to determine the interest and passion behind the words, instead of just listening to the words themselves.
• Keep learning. There are trainings and readings you can do to learn more about how to listen effectively.

By using all these components to practice effective listening, you can develop and strengthen your skills to improve your communication and leadership.

Effective Listening for Effective Leadership

Once you start implementing effective listening, you can put those skills into practice to improve your leadership skills. Effective listening, according to Fulwiler, is a critical component of being a transformational leader , in which you focus on not just the task, but also the person doing the work. This type of leadership is more likely to inspire excellence and dedication from your employees than if you only care about their output.

Building positive relations is an important part of leadership, and listening is a critical part of building good relationships. Actively listening to others lets them know that you are interested in their needs, as well as what they’re trying to say. When people feel that you care about them, it will make them more likely to follow your leadership, says Fulwiler.

Effective listening will help you “sell” your technical skills by allowing you to explain and utilize those skills in a way others understand.

Effective listening is also crucial to selling. You might not think that you are in sales – most people don’t – but anytime you try to influence someone, that’s selling. For example, you, as an environmental and health safety professional, might try to convince management that you need a particular – dust control system to eliminate exposure to a hazardous chemical. – If you are successful in convincing them, you then need to sell the shop floor workers on wearing personal protective equipment while maintaining the system. You might see these as just normal parts of your job, but you are selling solutions.

“We’re constantly in a customer-supplier relationship, even if we don’t realize it,” says Fulwiler. “If I’m not a good listener, I won’t really understand what my customer wants.”

By listening effectively to your customer – anyone you are trying to sell to – you can learn to speak their language. You’ll learn what’s important to them and how to see their world, which helps you become both a better salesperson and – leader.

While technical skills can get you in the door, you won’t be able to use them as successfully without listening skills. Effective listening will help you “sell” your technical skills by allowing you to explain and utilize those skills in a way others understand. In addition, when you listen to others, they are more likely to listen to and understand your intentions.

Effective Listening for Better Communication

Listening effectively is the foundation of effective communication. The best way to make sure others understand what you are trying to say is to truly understand who your audience is and what their needs are. This will allow you to tailor your message so that others are more receptive to it.

Effective listening also promotes empathy, which is not just about understanding others, but being actively sensitive to their needs. Focusing on this, even when speaking to people who may be below you in your organization, will allow you to build better relationships and encourage them to help you meet your needs now or in the future.

“The leading cause of miscommunication is communication,” says Fulwiler. “There is going to be miscommunication, but you can minimize it by ensuring you understand what someone else is really trying to say.”

Effective listening, therefore, can be a powerful tool in the environmental health and safety field that ensures understanding your colleagues, minimizing miscommunication, and improving your leadership capabilities.

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health offers Management and Leadership Skills for Environmental Health and Safety Professionals , an  program designed to Develop EHS management and leadership skills for team guidance, decision-making, stakeholder engagement, and driving change.

• Business Essentials
• Leadership & Management
• Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB)
• Entrepreneurship & Innovation
• Digital Transformation
• Finance & Accounting
• Business in Society
• For Organizations
• Support Portal
• Media Coverage
• Founding Donors
• Leadership Team

• Harvard Business School →
• HBS Online →
• Business Insights →

Business Insights

Harvard Business School Online's Business Insights Blog provides the career insights you need to achieve your goals and gain confidence in your business skills.

• Career Development
• Communication
• Decision-Making
• Earning Your MBA
• Negotiation
• News & Events
• Productivity
• Staff Spotlight
• Student Profiles
• Work-Life Balance
• AI Essentials for Business
• Alternative Investments
• Business Analytics
• Business Strategy
• Business and Climate Change
• Design Thinking and Innovation
• Digital Marketing Strategy
• Disruptive Strategy
• Economics for Managers
• Entrepreneurship Essentials
• Financial Accounting
• Global Business
• Launching Tech Ventures
• Leadership Principles
• Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability
• Leading with Finance
• Management Essentials
• Negotiation Mastery
• Organizational Leadership
• Power and Influence for Positive Impact
• Strategy Execution
• Sustainable Business Strategy
• Sustainable Investing
• Winning with Digital Platforms

6 Characteristics of an Effective Leader

• 04 Oct 2018

Although there isn’t a single right way to effectively lead a team, there are several characteristics common among successful leaders and managers you should consider when developing your leadership skills .

Incorporating these abilities into your professional development can enable you to make difficult decisions, align your organization on common goals, and lead your team to success.

Why Effective Leadership Is Important in Business

Ineffective leadership can cost companies more than just morale. According to research from Gallup , 24 percent of employees are actively disengaged as a result of poor management, leading to teams that are less productive, less profitable, and more likely to cause turnover. And that turnover adds up quick: translating into nearly two times the annual salary of every employee who quits.

That’s why effective leadership skills are important. In order to retain employees, satisfy customers, and improve company productivity, you need people who can effectively communicate the company’s vision, guide teams, and influence change.

If you aspire to be that person, here's how you can become a more effective leader.

Access your free e-book today.

Characteristics of an Effective Leader

1. ability to influence others.

“[Leadership] is all about influencing people,” said Kirstin Lynde, founder of leadership development firm Catalyze Associates, in a Facebook Live interview .

Early in your career, you might exercise authority by being the go-to person on a certain subject within your organization, or by actively listening and building consensus among your team. As you advance, you may exert influence by knowing how to articulate the direction you think the company should head in next.

According to the online course Power and Influence for Positive Impact , influence is “the ability to produce effects on other people’s behavior.” Influencing others requires building a strong sense of trust with your colleagues.

“This means [you] need to understand the types of resources people value when it comes to achieving safety and self-esteem,” says Harvard Business School Professor Julie Battilana in her course Power and Influence for Positive Impact .

Focus on understanding their motivations and encourage them to share their opinions. You can use that knowledge to make change and show their voice matters.

2. Transparency—to an Extent

Part of building trust is being transparent. The more open you are about the organization’s goals and challenges, the easier it is for employees to understand their role and how they can individually contribute to the company’s overall success. That sense of value and purpose translates into higher levels of employee engagement .

“To get people on board, they need to grasp what you’re conveying so they’re excited to join you in turning that direction into a reality,” says HBS Professor Anthony Mayo in the online course Organizational Leadership . “Your communication should meet people where they are, give them a sense of where the organization is going, and then give them a roadmap for how they can bridge the gap from where the organization is now to where you want to take it.”

While transparency is often intended to promote collaboration, knowledge sharing, and accountability, too much of it can have the opposite effect, according to Ethan Bernstein, an associate professor of organizational behavior at HBS.

“Wide-open workspaces and copious real-time data on how individuals spend their time can leave employees feeling exposed and vulnerable,” writes Bernstein in the Harvard Business Review . “Being observed changes their conduct. They start going to great lengths to keep what they’re doing under wraps, even if they have nothing bad to hide.”

Bernstein encourages balancing transparency with privacy and setting different types of boundaries to still foster experimentation and collaboration.

3. Encourage Risk-Taking and Innovation

Experimentation is critical to establishing and maintaining your company’s competitive advantage. Great leaders recognize this and encourage risk-taking and innovation within their organization.

“You can’t wave a wand, dictate to people that they need to be more creative, and wake up the next day to find people taking risks and trying new things,” Mayo says in Organizational Leadership .

Instead, leaders must actively foster a culture of innovation by supporting experimentation, challenging unwritten rules, and embracing mistakes. These steps, backed by data, can yield innovations that wouldn’t have otherwise surfaced.

By creating a culture that embraces failure and experimentation, employees are more emboldened to test theories or propose new ideas, because they see that creativity is valued. For example, Google’s innovation lab, X, offered bonuses to each team member who worked on a project the company ultimately decided to kill as soon as evidence suggested it wouldn’t scale, in an effort to “make it safe to fail.”

After all, big breakthroughs don’t happen when companies play it safe; experimentation is needed to reach lofty business goals. If well-intentioned, failures often become valuable lessons.

Related: How to Be an Effective Leader at Any Stage of Your Career

4. Integrity and Accountability

One of the most important aspects of leadership is demonstrating integrity. In a survey by consulting firm Robert Half , 75 percent of employees ranked “integrity” as the most important attribute of a leader. In a separate survey by Sunnie Giles , creator of Quantum Leadership, 67 percent of respondents ranked “high moral standards” as the most important leadership competency. Yet, it can be easy for leaders to deprioritize integrity when faced with organizational power. The ability to balance power and accountability can set successful leaders apart from ineffective ones.

“It’s precisely these two levers—sharing power and accountability—that enable workplaces and societies to keep power in check,” Battilana says in Power and Influence for Positive Impact .

Employees want to know that their manager will advocate for them, treat them fairly, and, ultimately, do what’s right for the business. As a leader, it’s important to not only avoid the consolidation of power but also any decision-making that could negatively affect others. Doing so can foster trust within your team and model behavior for others in the organization. The culmination of these factors can help you build a successful team.

5. Act Decisively

In today’s fast-changing, complex business environment, effective leaders need to make strategic decisions quickly—even before any definitive information is available.

Once you make a choice, stick with it, unless there’s a compelling reason to shift focus. Your goal is to move the organization forward, but that won’t happen if you can’t make a decision without wavering.

While timely decision-making is essential for any effective leader, it’s important to remember that decision-making is a process.

“The majority of people think about making decisions as an event,” says HBS Professor Len Schlesinger in the online course Management Essentials . “It’s very rare to find a single point in time where a ‘decision of significance’ is made and things go forward from there. What we’re really talking about is a process. The role of the manager in overseeing that process is straightforward, yet, at the same time, extraordinarily complex.”

By acting decisively, continuously evaluating, and pivoting when necessary, you can lead your organization through the ever-changing business landscape.

6. Demonstrate Resilience

Every decision you make won’t result in success. There will be times when you’re met with failure; it’s your job as a leader to exercise resiliency.

Consider the example of Antarctic explorer Ernest Schackleton presented in HBS Online’s sample business lesson on resilient leadership , led by HBS Professor Nancy Koehn.

When Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, was trapped and crushed by icebergs, the original mission—traversing Antarctica—suddenly became irrelevant. The new mission was to get his team of 28 men home alive. To do so, he needed to quickly lead his team through crisis.

The lesson outlines three key components of Shackleton’s approach that all leaders can learn from when facing major challenges:

• Continuously assess and reassess your leadership approach
• Commit to your primary objective while exercising flexibility
• Maintain belief in the team’s mission by managing collective and individual energies

Effective leaders don’t avoid hard truths or difficult challenges. Instead, they take responsibility for their decisions, maintain optimism, and focus on charting a new course of action. They also help others cope with organizational change and address issues quickly, so that problems don’t fester and escalate.

Assessing Your Strengths

Becoming an effective leader doesn’t happen overnight. It’s an iterative process and requires you to assess your strengths and evaluate who you are as a communicator and collaborator.

“In many cases, it’s your strong performance as an individual contributor that lays the foundation for your leadership roles,” says Mayo in the course Leadership Principles . “But what got you there won’t get you to the next level. As you shift from doing the work yourself to creating the conditions in which others excel, your identity is less about your individual accomplishments and tasks and more about the collective work of the group.”

With that shift in mind, you can take action to develop your leadership style and become the type of leader your organization needs.

Do you want to enhance your leadership skills? Download our free leadership e-book and explore our flowchart to see which online leadership and management course can help you become a more effective leader and unleash the potential in yourself and others.

This post was updated on February 17, 2023. It was originally published on October 4, 2018.

About the Author

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

8 Essential Qualities of Successful Leaders

• Rebecca Knight

And how to cultivate them.

Becoming a great leader is a journey of continuous learning and growth. It’s a process — one that thrives on embracing challenges, seeking feedback, fostering connections, and cultivating understanding. In this article, the author outlines the eight most essential leadership qualities, according to Harvard Business School professor Linda Hill, one of the world’s top experts on leadership. Star leaders aren’t born with superhuman capabilities, Linda explains. Rather, they tend to have intentionally put themselves in situations where they have to learn, adapt, and grow — a crucible for developing the tenacity and fortitude to motivate and guide others.

Do you have what it takes to be a great leader ?

• RK Rebecca Knight is a journalist who writes about all things related to the changing nature of careers and the workplace. Her essays and reported stories have been featured in The Boston Globe, Business Insider, The New York Times, BBC, and The Christian Science Monitor. She was shortlisted as a Reuters Institute Fellow at Oxford University in 2023. Earlier in her career, she spent a decade as an editor and reporter at the Financial Times in New York, London, and Boston.

Partner Center

Effective Listening Essay

Introduction, importance of listening, barriers to effective listening, strategies for effective listening, reference list.

Listening is an important element in the process of communication. Communication is basically about sending and receiving information. The most basic thing in communicating is ensuring the right message is received exactly as intended.

Both sender and receiver have to take proactive measures to ensure they send and receive the right messages. People use different media to communicate.

However, whether on the telephone or any other media, I am personally convinced that listening is necessary for any two people to understand each other.

This is a reflective paper in which I am going to share views on the importance of listening in communication, barriers to listening, and strategies of perfecting listening skills.

Many mistakes happen in individual’s lives just because they did not listen effectively. When it comes to business, getting exactly what the client, customer or supervisor is saying is very poignant. It is only through listening and getting the information right that one can respond appropriately.

Relationships are built on reciprocity in communication. A true interpersonal relationship is one in which people react and respond to each other appropriately.

Therefore, listening is important in personal communication, for success at work and in building interpersonal relationships (Battell, 2006, p. 2).

Language use could be very intriguing if one took the time to think about words and their usage. I realize that due to equivocal qualities of given words; one can say one thing and mean completely a different thing.

Unless the context of words is well understood, words can seriously affect communication. Apart from equivocal words, there are words with similar sounds, e.g., cap and cab. I had a cousin who had many fights with his dad due to mishearing the words used.

Uncle would send him for the gardener, and my cousin would come back with a kitten. The issue was not with his ears; my cousin was just hyperactive and never listened enough.

Due to not listening keenly, he would often respond wrongly, and people around him interpreted it for mischief. However, he was a simple obedient boy who just had too many things going at every one given time.

Good interpersonal relationships are built on effective listening to each other. Sometimes, a relationship can go on for years simply because one of the parties is a good listener. The moment he or she also chooses to give up on listening, such relationships end.

I once had a very close friend. We did many things together and enjoyed each other’s company. We never argued much, but on the few occasions we would disagree, she would say to me “the only problem is that you never listen.”

To this, I would retort with more angry words to the effect that I listen but cannot entertain crap in the name of listening. This friendship died years back but going through literature on listening; I have learned a lot that would have made my time with the friend even more awesome.

I realize that most arguments between us resulted from lack of effective listening on my part. My friend was somehow submissive, and I now notice that the relationship worked only as long as she was submissive and took in all my crap.

I never listened to her seriously because whenever she would raise a concern, I always had a hand-offish response ready. Therefore, we were in a friendship but, in essence, I did not relate to her. I simply never gave a chance to her perspective.

I was always the one with plans, and she only followed and supported me. This kind of arrangement fed my ego and made me feel like the controller of sorts.

Having learned from the described cases, I realize how critical listening is in families, marriages and at the workplace. Listening to each other at the workplace is crucial for several reasons. The people we meet at the workplace come from very different backgrounds.

Their way of self-expression or generally how they speak may be somehow different from what we are used to. Organizations are about customer delight to make profits.

Customer delight is built on internal synergy in the organization. Internal synergy is only achieved through good communication among employees. Successful companies know how to rally their employees into powerful teams that deliver on organizational objectives.

At the heart of any effort at rallying people is persuasion. Persuasion requires recognition of specific needs that information should address. For managers to understand employees under them, they have to learn to listen (Adair, 2009, p. 158).

Some employees may be good at technical work but very poor when it comes to self-expression; only patient listening can help such employees to tell exactly what they want or need.

Through active listening to employees, managers can create programs that optimize the usage of human resource in the organization.

Apart from internal synergy, successful organizations are those that manage to form lasting relations with customers, suppliers and other partners (Adair, 2009, p. 211). Once again, to connect with a customer, one has to identify the real need of the customer.

I once witnessed a very amusing case in a certain customer care center. I entered the care center, and one customer care agent was in a heated engagement with an enraged customer. Realizing, he was not going to find the help he needed; the customer made to leave.

But then some other customer agent motioned to the customer to go to his desk. After a few minutes, I overheard the customer saying “that is all that I wanted,” and he was smiling. I also smiled knowing too well what had happened.

In my opinion, the first customer care agent did not listen to the customer and did not identify where the problem was. If the customer had gone with the unresolved problem, most likely he would have switched product providers or badmouthed the company.

There are two major categories of barriers to effective listening, i.e., an individual’s disposition and distractions in the external environment (Brown, 2010). While writing about effective listening, I thought seriously about my interaction with friends.

I notice that some of my friends are better listeners than others. I also notice that in some instances I have been a better listener than others. Thinking about it all, I tend to think that personal insecurities are the biggest inhibitor to effective listening.

In most cases, we argue with our friends because we want to prove that our point of view is right (Brown, 2010). On their part, they also argue vehemently, because they want to prove that their point of view is right.

On close inspection, it is clear that arguments are often not about the rightness of view per se but something to do with me as a person is right.

Given an individual’s we are often too keen on being right, we focus on what we are saying to others and forget completely about what others are saying to us.

It is very interesting to be a bystander in a heated debate. In often cases, the heat is not about the rightness of views or ideas but the people themselves; they desire to appear superior or more right in themselves.

The second barrier to effective listening is distractions. In the world of today, people want to do a hundred things at the same time.

They are sharing serious issues with a friend while at the same time they are fully concentrated on a computer game or busy chatting on facebook or some other social network. Multitasking is a good skill, but it has to be managed properly.

The environment matters a lot when it comes to listening. If two people have to talk seriously, a noisy environment will bar proper communication.

There are two major barriers to effective listening i.e. a person’s disposition and distractions in the external environment; therefore, strategies employed for effective listening have to address both.

Secondly, although it is often assumed that only the receiver should listen, effective listening should be mutual between sender and receiver.

People’s attitude or disposition matters a lot when it comes to how they interact with others (Battell, 2006, p. 3). As indicated, personal insecurities and desire to win arguments often make individuals focus on what they are saying and forget what the other party is saying.

In actual sense, even before someone completes explaining what he or she is saying, the other will already be busy formulating his or her next line of attack. In arguments with friends, I have often found myself very frustrated.

And in some other cases, after a real heated argument, I find myself laughing when it is all over. Post-argument analysis often reveals that each of us had his or her position. We both tried to help each other see a point and how right it is.

Along the way, there was excruciating evidence showing that either all positions are right or one is more right than the other, but we all hold our ground because of deep-seated desire to be the right one; to win.

From the communication literature, I have read, it is clear that interpersonal interactions should not be about winning and losing. Rather, they are opportunities for mutual improvement through learning from one another.

Even in situations when one is outrightly wrong, and the other is outrightly right, the one with the right perspective should be able to learn from the wrongness of the other (Cohen, 2002, p. 96).

Communication should be about persuading others while at the same time giving them a chance to persuade you. Therefore, the right disposition should be assertiveness and humility as opposed to aggressiveness or boisterousness.

This approach to communication is well illustrated in the process of bargaining in business. There are people who approach negotiating or bargaining in business as aggressors while others approach the process as consensus seekers (Cohen, 2002, p. 84).

The two approaches merit in given situations. However, cohesive seeking negotiations or bargaining helps build more long term relationships.

A cohesive approach means that both parties state their terms and they amicably, on a win-win basis, seek the position that is mutually satisfying. Whenever any party adopts a defensive position, the chances of listening to each other become compromised.

Effective listening requires that the parties be interested in what the other is saying. When something is interesting, e.g., when an interesting soap opera is on air, we normally switch off everything else to concentrate.

Therefore, if we are truly interested in what others have to say to us, we have to switch off everything else and focus. By doing this, we are more likely to hear exactly what they have to say to us and even note how they say it. Concentration is a very important element in listening.

The purpose of listening is to get what the other means; as he or she says it. This can only be achieved through proper preparation to concentrate and listen.

Preparation to listen to starts with choosing the right place and time. This means that for every kind of communication, parties have to know the right where and when.

Choosing to tell someone something very important in a crowded place and expecting the other person to listen is counter-productive. The place has to warranty the possibility of capturing the full attention of the receiver.

The listener has also to know where there are too many distractions and either move away or choose another time when he or she can listen without interference.

When in an interaction, good listening requires that we digest the information from others. Digesting or evaluating takes time; thus one needs to refrain from quick responses or gut reactions to whatsoever others say (Wilson, 1998, p. 17).

However, as we listen and digest, it is advised that we show how alert we are; none verbally. One classic way that people use to show that they are listening is to nod their head or maintain eye contact.

The easiest way to know someone is not listening is by noting nonverbal clues, e.g., playing with things, shifting in the chair uncomfortably or not maintaining eye contact (Wilson, 1998, p. 17).

Secondly, a speaker can know when one is not listening from how fast he or she interjects or cuts others off. Interrupting what others are saying is a sure way of telling them that what they are saying is not of interest.

If it is very necessary that one has to interject, he or she has to explain why he or she is interrupting. Listening requires that once in a while we interrupt the speaker for clarification, to note something, to offer some additional information or to beg for more details (Wilson, 1998, p. 32).

One way of interjecting politely is by first illustrating that what the speaker has just said is clear. Therefore, paraphrasing helps the other to know that you are keenly following everything.

A polite question is also an acceptable way of interrupting a speaker. Great conservationists are good at asking questions. I tried this trick on my friends, and it works just fine.

When I do not have much to say to friends, I realized, the best way to having a great conversation is by asking them about issues that are of real interest.

In interpersonal interactions, individuals are always eager to get their views and arguments out; they seek to be understood. What many of us do not realize is that others can only understand us if we are also keen on understanding them.

To understand others, i.e., what they mean to say, we have to listen to them. Listening is an art that is developed with practice. The first step to listening is appreciating that what others are saying to us is of value.

Showing interest or being interested and encouraging others to say what they want to say is critical to understanding them.

From my observations, I realize that when we show interest and understanding to others, they are more likely to reciprocate by also showing interest or trying to understand what we say to them. Therefore, in whatsoever context, listening is pivotal for any meaningful interpersonal interaction.

Adair, J. (2009). Effective Communication: The Most Important Management Skill of All Sydney: Pan Macmillan.

Battell, C. (2006). Effective Listening . Chicago: ASTD Press.

Brown, J. (2010). Ten Obstacles to Empathic Communication . Center for Non-Violent Communication. Web.

Cohen, S. (2002). Negotiating Skills for Managers. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional.

Wilson, D. (1998). Listening Skills. Illinois: Mark Twain Media Publishing Inc.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, March 31). Effective Listening. https://ivypanda.com/essays/effective-listening/

"Effective Listening." IvyPanda , 31 Mar. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/effective-listening/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Effective Listening'. 31 March.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Effective Listening." March 31, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/effective-listening/.

1. IvyPanda . "Effective Listening." March 31, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/effective-listening/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Effective Listening." March 31, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/effective-listening/.

• The Role of Disposition in Human Action
• Distractions While Studying: Advantages and Disadvantages of Distraction
• Analyzing the Disposition of Items in Stores
• Female Disposition, Passion, and Empathy in American Literature
• Hospital Nurses’ Perceptions About Distractions to Patient-Centered Care Delivery
• Developing a Mathematical Disposition
• Active Listening for Healthy Communication
• Interpersonal Communication and Improving Listening Skills
• Psychological Disposition in Sylvia Plath’s Poems
• Ethical Issues, Distractions, and Alarm Fatigue
• Communication: The Coordinated Management of Meaning
• Technical Communication: Texting and Mobile Phones
• Communication Strategies: Good Listening Skills
• Communication Strategies: the UAE Oral History
• Nonverbal Aspects and Communication Climate

• Published December 1, 2023
• 9 Minute Read

12 Characteristics of a Good Leader

Leaders shape our teams, organizations, communities, and world.

We need good leaders to help guide us and make the essential decisions, big and small, that keep things moving forward.

Our society is usually quick to identify a bad leader, but how can you identify a good one? What would most people say are the qualities of a good leader?

What Good Leadership Looks Like

Based upon our decades of research and experience working with leaders at thousands of organizations around the world, we’ve found that the best leaders consistently possess certain fundamental qualities and skills. Here are 12 essential leadership traits.

12 Essential Leadership Qualities

• Self-Awareness
• Communication
• Learning Agility
• Collaboration

TIP: Download an action guide & summary of these essential characteristics of a good leader in PDF format to keep this list of leadership qualities at your fingertips as a reminder.

1. Self-Awareness

While this is a more inwardly focused trait, self-awareness and humility are paramount qualities of leadership. The better you understand yourself and recognize your own strengths and weaknesses, the more effective you can be as a leader. Do you know how other people view you and understand how you show up at work and at home? Take the time to learn about the 4 aspects of self-awareness and how to strengthen each component.

Treating people with respect on a daily basis is one of the most important things a leader can do. It helps ease tensions and conflict, fosters trust, and improves your effectiveness.  Creating a culture of respect  is about more than just the absence of disrespect. Respectfulness can be shown in many different ways, but it often starts with showing you truly value others’ perspectives and making an effort to build belonging in the workplace — both critical components of supporting equity, diversity, and inclusion.

3. Compassion

Compassion is one of the most powerful and important acts of leadership. It’s more than simply showing empathy or even listening and seeking to understand — as compassion requires leaders to act on what they learn. After someone shares a concern or speaks up about something, they won’t feel truly heard if their leader doesn’t then take some type of meaningful action on the information, our researchers have found. This is the core of compassionate leadership , and it helps to build trust, increase collaboration, and decrease turnover across organizations.

Motivating others and garnering commitment are essential parts of leadership. Purpose-driven leaders ensure they connect their team’s daily tasks and the values of individual team members to the overall direction of the organization. This can help employees find meaning in their work — which increases engagement, inspires trust, and drives priorities forward. You’ll want to communicate the vision in ways that help others understand it, remember it, and go on to share it themselves.

5. Communication

Effective leadership and effective communication are intertwined . The best leaders are skilled communicators who can communicate in a variety of ways, from transmitting information and storytelling to soliciting input and using active listening techniques . They can communicate well both orally and in writing, and with a wide range of people from different backgrounds, roles, levels, geographies, and more. The quality and effectiveness of communication among leaders at your organization will directly affect the success of your business strategy, too.

6. Learning Agility

Learning agility is the ability to know what to do when you don’t know what to do. If you’re a “quick study” or are able to excel in unfamiliar circumstances, you might already be learning agile. But anybody can foster and increase learning agility through intentional practice and effort. After all, great leaders are really great learners.

7. Collaboration

The most effective leaders can work with a variety of colleagues of different social identities , locations, roles, and experiences. As the world has become more complex and interconnected, good leaders find themselves spanning boundaries and learning to work across various types of divides and organizational silos. When leaders value and embrace collaboration, whether within their teams or cross-functionally, several benefits arise — including increased innovation, higher-performing teams, and a more engaged and empowered workforce.

8. Influence

For some people, “influence” may sound unseemly. But as a leader, you must be able to influence others to get the work done — you cannot do it all alone. Being able to persuade people through thoughtful use of appropriate influencing tactics is an important trait of inspiring, effective leaders. Influence is quite different from manipulation, and it needs to be done authentically and transparently. It requires high levels of emotional intelligence and trust.

9. Integrity

Integrity is an essential leadership trait for the individual and the organization. It’s especially important for top-level executives who are charting the organization’s course and making countless other significant decisions. Our research has found that leader integrity is a potential blind spot for organizations , so make sure you reinforce the importance of honesty and integrity to managers at all levels.

10. Courage

It can be hard to speak up at work, whether you want to voice a new idea, provide feedback to a direct report, or flag a concern for someone above you. That’s part of the reason courage is a key leadership trait — it takes courage to do what’s right! Leaders who promote high levels of psychological safety in the workplace enable their people to speak up freely and share candid concerns without fear of repercussions. This fosters a  coaching culture that supports courage and truth-telling . Courage enables both team members and leaders to take bold actions that move things in the right direction.

11. Gratitude

Being thankful can lead to higher self-esteem, reduced depression and anxiety, and better sleep. Sincere gratitude can even make you a better leader. Yet few people regularly say “thank you” in work settings, even though most people say they’d be willing to work harder for an appreciative boss. The best leaders know how to show frequent gratitude in the workplace .

12. Resilience

Resilience is more than the ability to bounce back from obstacles and setbacks — it’s the ability to respond adaptively to challenges. Practicing resilient leadership means you’ll project a positive outlook that will help others maintain the emotional strength they need to commit to a shared vision, and the courage to move forward and overcome setbacks. A good leader focuses on resilience, both taking care of themselves and also prioritizing leading employee wellbeing , too — thereby enabling better performance for themselves and their teams.

Download a PDF action guide and summary of these characteristics of a good leader, so you always have a visual reminder available of these 12 qualities of good leadership.

Develop the Characteristics of a Good Leader in Yourself & Others

Our 3 core beliefs about leadership & leadership development.

At the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)®, we’ve been researching the qualities of a good leader and the role of leadership for over 5 decades. Here are 3 of our core beliefs about good leaders and effective leadership.

Good leaders are made, not born.

First, we believe that leaders are made, not born. Put another way, leadership is a skill that can be developed . Good leaders are molded through experience, continued study, intentional effort, and adaptation. So you can strengthen any of these 12 characteristics of a good leader, if you’re open to growth, use your experiences to fuel development , and put in the time and effort toward self-improvement.

Similarly, organizations can help their people hone these top leadership qualities by providing ample opportunities for training, offering support for learning from challenges, and providing access to coaching and mentoring programs .

Leadership is a social process.

It’s also essential to recognize that  leadership is less about one strong or charismatic individual, and more about a group of people working collectively to achieve results together . If you demonstrate several of the characteristics of a good leader, but fail to grasp this key point, chances are you won’t get very far on your own. You may be well-liked and respected, but it will be challenging to accomplish team or organizational goals. At CCL, we like to say that the  outcomes of leadership are about creating direction, alignment, and commitment, or DAC , within a group.

Good leadership never stops.

Also, we believe that leadership isn’t a destination, it’s a journey   — it’s something that you’ll have to work at regularly throughout your career, regardless of what level you reach in your organization or what industry you work in. Different teams, projects, and situations will provide different challenges and require different leadership qualities and competencies to succeed. So you will need to be able to continue to apply these leadership characteristics in different ways throughout your career. Just continually keep learning and growing, and you’ll be an agile learner with a long career .

We Can Help You Develop the Qualities of a Good Leader

Organizations can strengthen leadership qualities and foster deeper levels of engagement at work through providing a variety of on-the-job learning experiences, mentoring, and formal development opportunities. At CCL, we have many award-winning leadership solutions with clients around the world, and we’d be honored to work with you and your organization as well.

But individuals don’t have to wait to begin strengthening these leadership characteristics within themselves. If you decide you want to work proactively on developing your leadership qualities and skills,  download our action guide & visual summary  of this content. And get our tips on how to  convince your boss to make an investment in you  and your future. We’re here to support you every step of the way on your journey to becoming a better leader!

Ready to Take the Next Step?

After you download the 12 Characteristics of a Good Leader , keep on learning and growing: never miss our exclusive leadership insights and tips — subscribe to our newsletters to get our research-based articles, webinars, resources, and guides delivered straight to your inbox. 

Keep these qualities of a good leader top of mind in the future: download a PDF summary of this article as an action guide and visual reminder of the leadership qualities to nurture in yourself, on your team, and at your organization in the future.

This article was written by our Leading Effectively staff, who analyze our decades of pioneering, expert research and experiences in the field to share content that will help leaders at every level. Subscribe to our emails to get the latest research-based leadership articles and insights sent straight to your inbox.

Table of Contents

Don't miss a single insight! Get our latest cutting-edge, research-based leadership content sent directly to your inbox.

Related Topics

What to explore next.

With over 30 pages of insights gleaned from our research, this collection of resources includes actionable tips and team discussion questions to help you become a (better) leader with a focus on compassion, wellbeing, and belonging.

This introduction to our leadership philosophy explains how direction, alignment, and commitment (the elements of our DAC framework) are key in how leadership works, connecting exponential potential with collective progress.

Want to set yourself apart as a leader? Arm yourself with these 6 essential skills. Our global research study found that organizations will need these 6 key qualities that their leaders presently lack.

Do you know how to effectively communicate at work? It's the core of everything we do, and yet many of us have significant room for improvement. Get our top tips for leaders.

Stepping into a management role requires a fundamental shift of identity. Learn how to be an effective boss and succeed in your new role with our leadership tips for first-time managers.

Related Solutions

Learn more about our flagship Leadership Development Program (LDP)®, the most widely known and longest-running leadership development training in the world.

Professional leadership coaching deepens and sustains leadership development. Learn more about our world-class leadership coaching services.

Learn more about our leadership training courses, which are targeted to develop the skills leaders need to succeed at all levels of your organization.

The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)® is a top-ranked, global, nonprofit provider of leadership development and a pioneer in the field of global leadership research. We know from experience how transformative remarkable leaders really can be.

Over the past 50 years, we’ve worked with organizations of all sizes from around the world, including more than 2/3 of the Fortune 1000. Our hands-on development solutions are evidence-based and steeped in our work with hundreds of thousands of leaders at all levels.

• TechWire Partners
• TechWire Insiders
• TechWire 20

• Bio Jobs Hub
• Local Business Virtual Conference Series
• Workforce Development
• Economic Development
• Startups Home
• Startup Guide
• Venture & Innovation
• Partner Content
• Real Estate

Select Page

Donald Thompson: Asking questions, actively listening are essential leadership skills

Donald Thompson

by Donald Thompson, The Diversity Movement — April 24, 2024 .

Leaders have strong opinions and are used to sharing them. Earlier in my career, I viewed brainstorming sessions as an opportunity for a little healthy competition – to get everyone excited and motivated to take on new ideas and tasks. As I have grown into an inclusive leader, however, I realize that in these moments I actually stood in the way of my own goals.

If a leader opens a meeting with a statement or declaration, particularly when brainstorming, then everything that follows aligns around that thought. It’s natural in a group setting to rally around the boss’s thinking. What I realize now is that I wasn’t getting the multiple points of view I wanted.

I also understand that not everyone wants to be in a competitive environment in the workplace. There are many thoughtful team members who process information differently or are less inclined to speak out in a setting that can get a little aggressive.

Leadership today: A shift toward inquiry

Effective leadership is not just about giving orders or making statements. Instead, leaders can refocus efforts by asking the right questions and actively listening to the team. Given that an Indeed study reported that “only 29% of people are thriving at work, while the other 71% report low-to-moderate well-being at their jobs,” executives should prioritize ways to get employees more deeply engaged in decision-making.

This inclusive approach to pulling team members into conversations is important as leaders cultivate an organizational culture designed to enhance creativity, foster innovation and promote inclusivity. By reframing one’s communication style to prioritize inquiry over assertion, leaders can create an environment where diverse perspectives are valued, and every voice is heard.

If you truly want the best idea to win, learn to ask questions instead of making statements. Over time, your team will gain confidence and become more willing to discuss new ideas. It may be my role as CEO to articulate a vision, but is also my responsibility to ignite teams in meaningful dialogue.

The old adage “There is no ‘I’ in team” has newfound validity when a fresh idea or initiative fosters a sense of ownership and empowerment among team members, while simultaneously generating better outcomes by tapping into the collective wisdom of the group.

The art of asking thoughtful questions

Communication is at the center of being an inclusive leader, but it is an expanded definition of the way we previously viewed communication. Today, it is focused on ensuring that a dialogue exists so that the project or campaign is powered by the collective efforts of the team. In a culture-driven workplace, asking great questions that lead to an expanded dialogue should be a skill that leaders cultivate and continue to build.

Let’s look at how a leader can use thoughtful questions in a hiring scenario. What I have found is that asking better questions will help make better hires. Most job interviews include basic questions that allow candidates to discuss their skills, but if you want to know how a potential teammate will perform in a role, then you need to go deeper. Try asking scenario-based questions like, “Tell me about a challenge you had with a supervisor. How did you handle it?” or “Describe a moment in your life that you are proudest of.”

By delving beyond surface-level qualifications and skills, leaders can assess a candidate’s problem-solving abilities, resilience and whether they are truly a culture addition more effectively. This approach enables you to identify top talent and signals to the prospect that the organization values critical thinking and creativity, which are essential in a knowledge economy where the best candidates can choose the type of organization they want to join.

The role of active listening in inclusive leadership

Too often, managers and supervisors ask questions, but don’t give people the space to answer, as if they are just (impatiently) waiting for their turn to speak again. This bad habit has spread with the proliferation of cell phones, texting and other forms of communication that value speed over comprehension.

The art of great leadership, though, requires active listening to go hand-in-hand with asking thoughtful questions. Inclusive leaders recognize that every team member brings unique perspectives and experiences to the table. They actively seek out and value these diverse viewpoints.

And, remember those teammates who process information differently or are less willing to speak in group settings? A strong leader is going to ask the right questions in the right environment to bring out their best efforts. Effective listening will go a long way toward creating a psychologically safe culture where people feel open to sharing ideas.

Your goal in today’s culture-centric workplace is to create a place where people feel valued, included and encouraged to contribute their best work. Conversations – asking great questions, followed by active listening – are at the center of this effort. We want to strive for authentic and transparent communications that benefit from the diverse perspectives from all team members, not the singular voice of the highest-ranking person in the room.

For more on inclusive leadership and the power of communication skills to empower leaders and teams, look for my new book The Inclusive Leadership Handbook: Balancing People and Performance for Sustainable Growth , co-authored with Kurt Merriweather, vice president of innovation at The Diversity Movement, published April 29.

About Donald Thompson

Donald Thompson, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2023 SE Award winner, founded The Diversity Movement (TDM) to fundamentally transform the modern workplace through diversity-led culture change. TDM was recently acquired by Workplace Options, which brings holistic wellbeing services to more than 80 million people in more than 200 countries and territories across the globe. Recognized by Inc., Fast Company and Forbes, Thompson is author of Underestimated: A CEO’s Unlikely Path to Success , hosts the podcast “High Octane Leadership in an Empathetic World” and has published widely on leadership and the executive mindset. As a leadership and executive coach, Thompson has created a culture-centric ethos for winning in the marketplace by balancing empathy and economics. His next book is The Inclusive Leadership Handbook: Balancing People and Performance for Sustainable Growth .

Follow him on LinkedIn for updates on news, events and his podcast, or contact him at [email protected] for executive coaching, speaking engagements or DEI-related content. TDM has created LeaderView , a leadership assessment tool that uses cultural competency as a driver for improving whole team performance. To further explore DEI content and issues impacting your work and life, visit TDM Library , a multimedia resource hub that gives leaders a trusted source of DEI content.

• Relationships

How to Be a Better Listener

Choose the right listening "speed" for each occasion..

Posted March 11, 2024 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

• Why Relationships Matter
• Find counselling to strengthen relationships
• People are drawn together when conversation responses are rapid and in synch with one another.
• Conversations with long pauses between turns can also enhance emotional intimacy.
• Effective listeners tailor their response rate according to the nature of the conversation.

Sometimes conversations proceed at a rapid pace, with one partner nearly cutting off the other and finishing their sentences for them. Such conversations can be thrilling, providing the partners with a sense of intimacy , almost as if they were speaking from one mind.

At other times, conversations can be slow. Speakers choose their words carefully, and listeners pause long afterward to formulate their responses. Such conversations can at times be excruciating as we anxiously await our partner’s response.

Being a good listener is an important life skill, whether you’re trying to be an effective leader or just a good friend. But that doesn’t mean you should aim for an exciting, rapid-paced listening style on every occasion. Rather, as Dartmouth College psychologists Emma Templeton and Thalia Wheatley point out in an article that they recently published in the journal Current Opinion in Psychology , good listeners carefully select a “fast” or “slow” listening style as appropriate for the situation.

Listening in Fast Mode

Rapid-fire repartee is an exhilarating experience that can bring conversation partners together in emotional intimacy. In such fast-paced conversations, there’s almost no gap between the end of one turn and the start of the next. Often, the partners overlap each other as the listener finishes what the speaker is saying.

After such a conversation, partners often report feeling closer to each other, and there’s good reason for this. A rapid-paced conversation requires heightened degrees of arousal to maintain high levels of attention . The two partners must also be largely thinking along the same lines so that they can accurately predict what the other is going to say next. Because the partners are so tightly aligned in their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, it’s no wonder that fast-paced dialogue is often perceived as an intimate experience.

Even in one-off exchanges, people generally prefer a rapid response from their listeners. For instance, when people make a request, they interpret a rapid response as a willingness to meet the request. But if the listener hesitates, people generally interpret this as reluctance to comply, almost as if they were trying to think of a way to say no.

However, this doesn’t mean that rapid-response conversation will always bring the conversation partners closer together. For instance, when a couple argues, they leave little gap between turns, and the turns often overlap. But rather than being so in synch that they can predict what their partner is about to say, the two talk over and past one another, pushing their own agenda rather than listening to what the other person has to say.

Listening in Slow Mode

If you find yourself in an argument, a good way to reduce the “temperature” is to slow down your response rate. By pausing to listen to what your partner has to say, they feel heard and become calmer. When you listen to your partner in this moment, you increase your chance of being heard later on.

There are plenty of other situations in which listening in slow mode yields better results. This is especially true when the conversation topic is complex or is likely to elicit unpleasant thoughts or hurt feelings. For instance, if you’re consulting with your doctor, you’d much prefer careful, measured responses to your questions than rapid rejoinders. In this case, the “slow” listening mode indicates that the other person is thinking carefully about what to say next.

A similar situation plays out in the therapist’s office. During counseling, there are often long pauses between turns, and even the turns themselves are frequently punctuated with long silences. The purpose here is to create a safe environment that gives each person time to contemplate what the other has just said and what they want to say next.

Ironically, this kind of slow listening mode also requires a high degree of attention, just as fast listening does, but it’s directed toward a different purpose. Instead of trying to predict what your partner will say next, you’re showing that you’re carefully considering what they’ve just said. In this way, slow listening can create a sense of emotional intimacy just as fast listening can.

However, the slow listening mode can also break a connection rather than build it. This is particularly true in casual conversations between strangers. In such cases, people expect a quick reply to what they have just said, and if the other person pauses, it’s interpreted as disinterest in continuing the conversation.

Selecting the Right Listening Speed for the Occasion

If you want to get to better know the person you’re talking to, you need to be able to come back with something new to say right away. People with social anxiety worry about saying the “right thing,” and they hesitate during conversations with strangers. But research shows that people in such situations care more about the warmth of what you say than about its content. As long as you say something relatively germane to the topic and positive in tone, your partner will be interested in continuing the conversation with you.

Rather than picking one listening style as default, skilled conversationalists know how to select a fast or slow listening style to suit the situation. The fast mode works well when the content of the conversation matters less than the shared experience. In contrast, the slow mode is more effective when the goal is to reach mutual understanding. In either case, you can build a close personal connection with your conversation partner by being the kind of listener they need in that moment.

Facebook image: fizkes/Shutterstock

Templeton, E. M. & Wheatley, T. (2023). Listening fast and slow. Current Opinion in Psychology, 53, 101658. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2023.101658

David Ludden, Ph.D. , is a professor of psychology at Georgia Gwinnett College.

• Find Counselling
• Find a Support Group
• Find Online Therapy
• United Kingdom
• Asperger's
• Bipolar Disorder
• Chronic Pain
• Eating Disorders
• Passive Aggression
• Personality
• Goal Setting
• Positive Psychology
• Stopping Smoking
• Low Sexual Desire
• Child Development
• Therapy Center NEW
• Diagnosis Dictionary
• Types of Therapy

Understanding what emotional intelligence looks like and the steps needed to improve it could light a path to a more emotionally adept world.

• Coronavirus Disease 2019
• Affective Forecasting
• Neuroscience

Feb 15, 2023

Essays on Leadership for Students | 200 - 500 Word Essays

Are you writing an essay about leadership? Check out these examples!

Leadership is often defined as "the action of inspiring others to act in concert to achieve a particular goal." It signifies the harmony in actions that lead to a common objective. A genuine leader not only exudes confidence but also paves the way for their followers towards triumph. Over the years, various leadership styles have been identified and discussed by psychologists.

 Qualities such as intelligence, adaptability, extroversion, innate self-awareness, and social competence often emerge as the hallmarks of impactful leaders. There's a consensus that these traits mold an individual into an effective leader. Interestingly, some theories suggest that extraordinary situations can thrust an ordinary individual into the spotlight, bestowing upon them the mantle of leadership. It's also believed that leadership isn't a static trait but an evolving journey. It underscores the belief that with dedication and the right resources, anyone can hone their leadership abilities.

 True leadership goes beyond merely advocating for a cause. It involves taking responsibility, igniting motivation in others, and differentiating oneself from just being a 'boss'. A leader's essence lies in their ability to inspire and propel people towards grand visions, whereas a manager typically focuses on oversight and operational aspects.

What Is a Leadership Essay?

A leadership essay falls under the category of student application essays and serves to provide student admissions officers with insight into your past leadership experiences. Despite appearing to be very specific, this type of essay acknowledges that the nature and perception of leadership can vary significantly depending on the individual and the context.

 If you find yourself in need of further insights or a unique angle for your leadership essay, consider exploring an expert essay-writing tool designed to assist students in crafting compelling narratives by analyzing vast data and generating fresh ideas within minutes. In this article, we'll also delve into various leadership essay examples to offer a clearer understanding of the genre and inspire your writing journey.

4 Examples of Leadership Essays

Qualities of a good leader, introduction.

Confidence is the most important attribute first of all. One of the most important qualities in a leader is confidence in one's own abilities. A lack of self-assurance is fatal to a person's leadership potential. If you want others to follow you, you need to exude self-assurance. It's imperative for a leader to have faith in his own judgment and actions. How can people want to follow him if he doesn't even know what he's doing?

Every effective leader knows that they need to be an inspiration to their followers. A leader needs to set an example for his team. In addition, he ought to inspire them whenever feasible. A leader must also maintain optimism in trying times.

What qualities a good leader must have?

Leadership is the ability to influence and guide individuals or groups toward a common goal. A leader must possess several qualities to be effective, including:

Communication skills: A leader must be able to communicate their vision and goals clearly and effectively, both verbally and in writing. This requires excellent listening skills, empathy, and the ability to adapt to different communication styles.

Emotional intelligence: A leader must be able to understand and manage their own emotions, as well as those of their team members. This includes being able to understand and respond to the emotions of others, and handling conflicts in a constructive manner.

Visionary: A leader must have a clear and inspiring vision of the future, and be able to articulate this vision in a way that motivates others to work towards it.

Strategic thinking: A leader must be able to think critically and creatively to identify and solve problems, make decisions, and develop plans and strategies to achieve their goals.

Flexibility: A leader must be able to adapt to changing circumstances and be open to new ideas and perspectives. This requires the ability to embrace change, be innovative, and continuously learn and grow.

Integrity: A leader must have strong ethics and values, and be willing to make difficult decisions that are consistent with their beliefs. This requires honesty, transparency, and accountability.

Decisiveness: A leader must be able to make tough decisions quickly, without undue hesitation or procrastination. This requires courage and the ability to take calculated risks.

Empowerment: A leader must be able to delegate responsibilities, give team members the resources they need to succeed, and foster a sense of ownership and accountability among their team.

Conclusion 

These qualities are essential for effective leadership, and when combined with hard work, determination, and a commitment to excellence, can help leaders to achieve great things.

How one can be a Great Leader?

Leadership is the act of performing the duties of a leader. In the business world, for instance, it is essential to have someone in charge of a team to ensure everything runs well. Effective leadership is essential for any group that wants to maximize its prospects of success.

Leadership Comes from Experience

As we've shown, leadership can be innate in some cases but is more often learned through practice and exposure. Sometimes the best traits of a leader must be learned over a lengthy period of time, so that one can become a notable one, proving that leadership is not always about a person's innate qualities. Leaders should continuously be on the lookout for opportunities to grow their leadership skills.

Nobody can disagree that experience is a key component of leadership. Numerous examples exist to back up this claim, such as:

Instance 1:

Our school's head boy or girl has traditionally been an older student who has been around for a while and thus has a better grasp of the ins and outs of school politics.

Instance 2:

When there is a vacancy for a team leader, it is common practice for the employee who has consistently put in the most effort and attention to the office job to receive a higher number of votes than their coworkers. 

“The best teacher for a leader is evaluated experience.” - John C. Maxwell

How one can be a Great Leader/Skills to be a Great Leader?

Effective leadership is a skill that develops through time. Developing into a leader with all the qualities that are needed takes a lot of hard work and potential. Being a prominent leader calls for a wide variety of traits. Some of these characteristics are addressed in further detail below:

One should be a Good Communicator

To be an effective leader, one must be able to convey his thoughts clearly to his/her/its subordinates.

Should have Confidence

The individual should have faith in what he says and does.

Give Credit to other Team Members too

A leader not only needs to impose his viewpoints and opinions instead he must also hear to the suggestions of other members of the team and offer them credit if their concept is appropriate.

Good Bond with the Team

A leader's ability to command respect from his team members depends on his ability to develop and maintain positive relationships with them.

Leads with Responsibility

A leader needs to be completely committed to his position. It's important that he takes on responsibility so that he can effectively deal with the various challenges he will inevitably face.

Any group or organization needs a leader above all else. Leadership development takes time and effort. One needs to have lived through a lot to be an effective leader. It's not enough to simply have years of experience in the field; one must also have the traits that make one an effective leader. You can't be a great leader unless you possess certain traits.

What makes a Good Leader?

Trying one's hand as a leader appears easy when viewed through this lens. Is that so tough? Of course not; leading is difficult, and not everyone aspires to be a leader. The vast majority of us have settled into well-established careers where we report to superiors and make a living. Still, not everyone is content to go along with the crowd. They become leaders in whatever field they pursue. A leader is an example to followers and will prioritize the needs of those around them.

Some Unique Qualities of a Leader

Many individuals resort to their leaders to vent their frustrations, therefore it's important for them to be good listeners.

A leader ought to be completely forthright; they can't play favorites or give anyone preferential treatment. One of the most essential qualities of a strong leader is the ability to make decisions with integrity.

They need to be aware of the bigger picture and understand what makes an individual stand out or become a leader. It's their expertise in addition to other distinguishing traits. Their awareness of current events and the results of recent studies is essential. In many ways, this is helpful, and it's the leader's responsibility to stay current.

Since some might not understand them, they should utilize straightforward, easily comprehended language. Leaders need to be able to communicate effectively at all times. In reality, what sets them apart is their exceptional communication skills. Adolf Hitler was such a gifted orator that his followers believed every word he said.

No matter how you're feeling or what's going on in the world, if you listen to a leader, they may make you feel energized. Since leaders are in charge of inspiring confidence in their followers, they can't afford to be wary or unsure of themselves. People tend to blindly follow their leaders.

Whether you're a leader or a doctor, you should devote yourself completely to your chosen field. Everything we do is for the benefit of others; engineers, for example, spend much of their time designing and constructing buildings for other people. So, take pride in what you do, and if you possess the aforementioned traits, you are also a leader who doesn't have to rely on others to succeed. No matter what you do, aspiring to leadership positions will always benefit others.

What is Leadership in Management and what are the weaknesses and strengths of a Leader?

Simply said, leadership is acting as a supervisor or manager of a group. Different mental pictures pop up when we hear the word "leadership" used in conversation. One might think of a political leader, team leader, corporate leader, school leader, etc. Leaders facilitate order and efficiency in the workplace. Teamwork and success are fundamental to effective leadership. Leaders utilize their managerial abilities to establish courses and guide their teams to success.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Leadership

Able to express oneself more clearly

Growth of character.

Self-awareness.

Possession of teamwork skills.

Gain assurance in yourself.

Weaknesses:

Acting favorably toward one's teammates.

Having no faith in the leader.

Thinks they're better than everyone else, but act hypocritically.

Not living up to the promised standard.

Insufficient morals.

Leadership and Management

Management and leadership are inextricably linked to one another. Leadership and management are both vital to the efficient operation of an organization; but, they accomplish very different things in the process. Leadership is a necessary skill for anyone aspiring to be an effective manager. The terms management and leadership are synonymous with one another. In this manner, we are able to draw the conclusion that a manager who demonstrates the traits of a successful leader is, in fact, a manager who is effective.

Leadership in School

Leadership is essential in nearly every group, as we've seen above. That group includes one's educational institution. Every school needs an outstanding figure to serve as its head of school. Class monitor, assembly captain, cultural leader, etc. are all examples of leadership roles that can be taken on at school, but this raises the question of what makes a person a successful school leader.

Any student hoping to be chosen as a student body leader will need to demonstrate a wide range of competencies. He or she needs to be a consistent student who pays attention in class and does well in extracurricular activities. For the simple reason that no intelligent and hardworking kid would ever be considered for leadership. Student leaders are most often selected from among those who participate fully in all activities.

Leadership in Organization

Leadership in an organization, also known as organizational leadership, is the process of establishing long-term objectives that further the company's mission and help it reach its ultimate destination. This is a classic illustration of how Bill Gates often works with his team: they agree on a strategy, and Gates implements it. To the same extent, it is the responsibility of the leader in each given organization to determine what it is that the group is trying to accomplish.

Leadership in Politics

Leadership in politics, also known as political leadership, is the process of becoming actively involved in a political party in the role of a party leader. Knowledge of political processes, their outcomes, and the political agenda is central to the idea of political leadership.

An effective leader can be developed in anyone who has the determination and drives to do so. Both the strengths and the areas for improvement should be nurtured. Whether in the classroom, the workplace, or the political arena, leadership is always necessary. Therefore, one can exercise leadership anywhere they like inside their own organization.

What are the types of Leadership?

The ability to lead is a rare trait that not everyone possesses. The ability to do so is a gift, so count your blessings if you possess it. It's recommended that you hone it even more so that you can propel your career forward and serve as an example to people around you. However, it is crucial to grasp the various leadership styles before you go ahead and polish your skills.

Types of Leadership Styles

Democratic Leadership

In this style of management, subordinates are given a voice in decision-making. Although the subordinates' efforts are highlighted, the leader is ultimately held responsible for the group's actions. Many people find this type of leadership to be effective.

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leaders motivate and inspire others to adopt new behaviors and ways of thinking in order to improve their own performance and that of their teams and organizations. A transformational leader is someone who encourages their team to strive for greater things and works to boost morale and output.

Team Leadership

A good leader fully incorporates his team into the task at hand. Members of the team are motivated to reach their goals and advance in their careers thanks to the leadership of the group.

Strategic Leadership

It requires a chief executive who doesn't restrict himself to brainstorming sessions with his superiors. He contributes on every level of the team. He is well-liked for his ability to unite the need for fresh ideas with the necessity of grounding them in reality.

Autocratic Leadership

The leader in a command and control structure is the center of attention. The chief executive has absolute power in this setting. He decides things on his own, without polling his staff. He relays this information to his staff and stresses the importance of swift action. The buck stops with him, and he alone must answer for his actions. Not much room for negotiation exists. It's no secret that this method of leading has its detractors.

Visionary Leadership

This kind of leader appreciates the abilities and requirements of his team members. He describes his ideal outcome and the teamwork that will be necessary to attain it.

Coaching Leadership

Leaders who coach their teams do so regularly in an effort to raise output. He inspires his employees to do better and works to keep them motivated. This approach to leadership has been much praised.

Facilitative Leadership

With occasional guidance, a facilitative leader ensures that the process runs smoothly for his team. As a precaution in case his team is ineffective. If the team is highly effective, the leader will take a hands-off approach.

Cross-Cultural Leadership

The leadership of this type is necessary when interacting with people from various cultural backgrounds. Because of the wide variety of cultures represented in the workforce across the United States, many managers and executives hold cross-cultural positions.

Laissez-Faire Leadership

The members of the team are given responsibility in this style of management. They are free to choose how they spend their time at work, with minimal oversight from the boss. It's not a good way to lead, according to experts.

Transactional Leadership

An interactive approach is integral to this kind of leadership. When team members successfully implement their leader's ideas and choices, they are rewarded with immediate, material benefits.

Charismatic Leadership

In order to bring out the best in his followers, this kind of leader makes the effort to change their attitudes, values, and actions.

This article should dispel the notion that leadership qualities can't be further subdivided. It should also assist you in pinpointing your own personal brand of leadership so you can perfect it over time.

Final Words

In conclusion, leadership is a complex and multifaceted concept that involves various qualities and skills. Effective leaders possess traits such as integrity, vision, empathy, decisiveness, and the ability to inspire and motivate others. They are able to navigate challenges, make difficult decisions, and lead their team toward success. Leadership also involves continuous learning and self-improvement, as leaders must adapt to changing circumstances and remain relevant. Effective leadership can have a positive impact on both individuals and organizations, fostering growth and creating a culture of success.

You can use Jenni.ai to quickly compose an essay on leadership, or any other topic, of your choosing. It's a fantastic choice that promises convenience and relief. Create an essay on any topic in a matter of minutes with the help of our AI-powered program. Membership is immediately available upon your free registration here.

You can use Jenni.ai to quickly compose an essay on leadership, or any other topic, of your choosing. It's a fantastic choice that promises convenience and relief. Create an essay on any topic in a matter of minutes with the help of our AI-powered program. Sign up on Jenni.ai and get a free trial.

Try Jenni for free today

Create your first piece of content with Jenni today and never look back

Essay on Be a Good Listener

Students are often asked to write an essay on Be a Good Listener in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Be a Good Listener

Understanding good listening.

Good listening is more than just hearing. It’s about understanding and showing respect for the speaker. It involves paying full attention, not interrupting, and responding appropriately.

Benefits of Good Listening

Good listening helps in learning, building relationships, and solving problems. It makes you more understanding and compassionate. It also improves your communication skills.

How to Be a Good Listener

To be a good listener, you need to focus on the speaker, avoid distractions, and show empathy. Don’t rush to respond. Instead, take time to understand what’s being said. Remember, patience is key.

Good listening is a skill that everyone should learn. It not only makes us better communicators but also better human beings.

250 Words Essay on Be a Good Listener

The art of listening.

Listening is an essential facet of communication, often overlooked in our haste to express our viewpoints. It is not a passive act but an active skill that requires attention, patience, and empathy.

The Importance of Being a Good Listener

Being a good listener fosters meaningful relationships, promotes understanding, and encourages the sharing of ideas. It is a cornerstone of effective communication, and its importance extends beyond personal relationships to academic and professional settings.

Becoming a good listener involves several key attributes. Firstly, it requires attention. This means not only hearing the words spoken but also understanding the underlying emotions and ideas. It involves observing non-verbal cues such as body language and tone of voice.

Secondly, it necessitates patience. It is about allowing the speaker to express their thoughts without interruption, even if it takes them a while to articulate their ideas.

Thirdly, empathy is pivotal. It involves acknowledging the speaker’s feelings and perspectives, even if they differ from your own.

Benefits of Being a Good Listener

Being a good listener has numerous benefits. It enhances learning, fosters empathy, and promotes trust. It can lead to more profound insights and understanding, not only of others but also of oneself.

In conclusion, listening is a skill that can be cultivated with practice. It requires attention, patience, and empathy. By becoming a good listener, we can enhance our relationships, broaden our understanding, and contribute to a more empathetic society.

500 Words Essay on Be a Good Listener

Introduction.

Listening is an essential part of communication, often overlooked in favor of its more expressive counterpart, speaking. However, the art of being a good listener is a powerful tool in any interpersonal relationship, be it professional or personal. It fosters understanding, empathy, and connection, and is a skill that can be honed with conscious effort.

The Importance of Good Listening

Good listening goes beyond merely hearing the words spoken to us. It involves understanding the speaker’s perspective, emotions, and intentions. It is the cornerstone of effective communication, enabling us to respond appropriately and build stronger relationships. In a world increasingly dominated by digital communication, the importance of good listening cannot be overstated. It is the key to bridging gaps in understanding and fostering genuine human connections.

Characteristics of a Good Listener

Being a good listener involves more than just being silent when someone else is speaking. It requires active participation and engagement in the conversation. Good listeners are attentive, showing interest in the speaker’s words through non-verbal cues like eye contact and nodding. They refrain from interrupting, allowing the speaker to express their thoughts fully. They also provide feedback, either by summarizing what has been said or asking clarifying questions, ensuring that they have accurately understood the speaker’s message.

The Role of Empathy in Listening

Empathy plays a crucial role in effective listening. By putting ourselves in the speaker’s shoes, we can better understand their feelings and perspectives. Empathetic listening can foster deeper connections, as it demonstrates respect and validation for the speaker’s experiences. It also encourages open and honest communication, as the speaker feels safe and understood.

The benefits of being a good listener are manifold. In a professional setting, it can lead to improved teamwork, problem-solving, and decision-making, as everyone’s ideas are heard and understood. On a personal level, it can strengthen relationships, as it fosters mutual respect and understanding. Moreover, good listening skills can enhance our learning and growth, as we open ourselves up to new perspectives and ideas.

In conclusion, being a good listener is an invaluable skill in today’s fast-paced, interconnected world. It requires active engagement, empathy, and respect for the speaker’s perspective. The benefits of good listening extend beyond effective communication to improved professional performance and personal relationships. As we strive to become better communicators, let us not forget the power of listening, for it is through understanding others that we truly connect.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Basketball
• Essay on Barack Obama
• Essay on APJ Abdul Kalam

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.