How to be a Great Leader
Effective leadership and a solid corporate culture are absolutely essential to organizational success. Leaders are like the captains of a ship while the corporate culture is like the sea through which the ship navigates. A good captain will make sure the shipmates understand the mission and have the right spirit to see it through. A good culture will allow for smooth sailing—and, of course, a bad culture will be like sailing through a hurricane or typhoon. Good leaders will help to create a good culture that empowers workers and fosters success; bad leaders will inevitably foster a bad culture that undermines the organization’s mission (Schyns & Schilling, 2013). This paper will discuss what matters most when leading and creating a positive culture.

No organization is ever without conflict. When it comes to managing conflict, one of the most important leadership traits a leader can have is emotional stability. Leaders are looked to for guidance because they are supposed to be firm and like a rock when all else around one is seemingly being tossed like a ship at sea during a storm. The leader has to keep a cool and calm head, show focus and determination, and demonstrate a keen ability to keep from getting ruffled and riled up by the issues that upset others. A leader who cannot show emotional stability is one who risks not being a leader long. As Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) point out, a leader without emotional stability is more likely to derail an organization’s mission than a leader who is perceived to be emotionally stable.

Communication is also essential in order for an organization to be successful. One strategy a leader can adopt in order to improve communication is to request feedback from workers and make himself more available to listen to...…become resistant.

In summation, resistance can be a major obstacle to success, and in order to manage conflict the leader must be emotionally stable and must promote effective communication by opening the lanes for two-way flow of communication. The best strategy here is to request feedback from personnel so that they feel more involved in the overall decision-making process and that their opinions and insights are appreciated and that they matter. A leader who respects his workers enough to set time aside to listen to them is one who will improve morale and create a positive culture. Leaders have to be engaged with their workers—they cannot be distant and disconnected from them. Most workers are going to need help reaching the level of self-actualization—and for that reason leaders should acquaint themselves with the concept of servant leadership and be willing to use emotional and social intelligence to identify the needs of their workers so…