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...

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…