Social Skills

Social Skills & the Corporate Ladder The Debate The importance of the role of leadership and how it relates to success in an organization is being realised more and more in the present age of business. More importance is being attached to developing efficient managers who are also good leaders and who have the ability to lead a team-small or large to drive an organization to sustainability and success (Riggio and Reichard, 2008).

Most organizations are also devoting a lot of resources in the training and development of talented employees in hopes of preparing new leaders to lead various departments and sections of organizations. There are rough estimates that companies expend anywhere from $16.5 billion to $45 billion annually for training and other purposes for development of leadership qualities in their managers in the United States alone (Rosenbach, Taylor and Youndt, 2012).

This level of expenditure also goes beyond the leadership development programs and other supporting management executive education activities being undertaken by the various organization in modern business. However there are certain paradigms related to leadership that often become an issue among individuals as well as with organizations. One salient debate relates to whether social skills or intellectual skills are more important for development of leadership qualities and rising the corporate ladder.

The Debate The leadership style that entails the making the followers or subordinates to feel that they are important in the corporate order and that they should not accept a status quo. The intellectual leader helps the followers to create a vision of the future where the followers are able to place themselves and hence are able to relate to the vision of their leader. The primary skills of intellectual leaders with respect to organizations include the ability to learn from experience and being able to adapt to changing conditions.

Such leaders also essentially have significant knowledge about the skills that are used by the subordinates and are able to inspire the subordinates. It has been seen that intellectual leaders generally possess a good sense of judgment, foresight and creativity that helps the leader create a vision for the followers (Riggio and Reichard, 2008). This also flows from the self-confidence and self-knowledge that the leader possesses. Intellectual leaders are also able to plan effectively and solve problems by organizing the subordinates and by coordinating separate parts of the organization.

Such leaders are also essentially objective in their decision making. On the other end of the spectrum, leaders with social skills exhibit a broad range of abilities. Most often these abilities are linked closely to the social intelligence construct. Social skills primarily mean those that are employed to conduct oneself in social situations. Social skills are related to the ability of an individual to adequately express in social settings and to understand and assimilate social situations.

An individual with social skills also has adequate knowledge of social roles, norms, and scripts. Socially knowledgeable people are also able to solve interpersonal problems more easily and effectively than those without. Playing a social role is also among the qualities of a socially skilled individual (Riggio and Reichard, 2008). Thus a socially skilled person is able to communicate effectively verbally in a social setting and has skills that can engage others in a social setting.

Such individuals also have the ability to give patient hearing to others and ability to read social situations while understanding the norms and rules of society. Such individuals are also experts at controlling social situations tactfully (Groves, 2005). It is assumed that people who want to become leaders in organizations and corporations and who have intellectual skills that can be used to become a leader would be essentially creative in nature. Such leaders generally tend to think big and have a range of solutions for a problem.

This ability comes to them from their nature of creating a vision for the subordinates. However other hand at many times, the solutions offered by an intellectual leader are not practical. Moreover intellectual leaders are more adept at creating their vision for the others and do not allow much scope for the incorporation of the vision of the followers in his vision. Though charismatic in nature, such leaders have problems following orders from superiors, though they expect complete loyalty from their own teams.

Therefore though intellectual leaders are good at motivating people by creation of a vision, but they are not receptive and communicative. In comparison a person with social skills and one who is aspiring to become a leader in an organization is more of a practical nature because the individual knows the societal context of a situation. Such individuals have excellent interpersonal skills and hence they are good communicators. In a social context such leaders would be able to communicate with different people more easily than intellectual leaders (Groves, 2005).

Hence while assuming a social role such leaders can create a rapport with others very easily and establish a good and strong communication channel. This is an essential quality of leader in any organization where there is need for communication with the subordinates (Harbour and Farrell, 2009). Socially skilled people are also good listeners and they can give be patient when listening to others points-of-view. This is important in a corporate leadership structure where there is some degree of freedom within the hierarchy.

Listening skills help to not only creates reliability in the other person but also makes the other person feel important. More importantly this type of communication can also help generate new ideas and help solve problems (Rosenbach, Taylor and Youndt, 2012). People with social skills are also good at solving interpersonal conflicts and problems. This flows from the ability of the leader to communicate and hear others. Thus this skill assumes vast importance in large organizations where a there is a varied and diverse workforce.

The difference in cultures and backgrounds are quickly overcome by a socially skilled person and hence such a leader rarely would have problems due to space or power concepts among various individuals coming from various cultures and backgrounds Being able to read social situations, the socially skilled individual is also very practical. Such individuals, when they assume the role of a leader, are able to read situations better than others. Thus this ability enables such individuals to provide practical solutions to problems and situations unlike intellectual leaders.

Though such leaders are not very adept at creating vision for the followers and.