Leadership looks very simple if one sees it from outside but when one actually step into the shoes of a leader then he or she realize the difficulty and hard work which goes into becoming a successful leader. Leadership comes naturally to an individual; however, there are many features of leadership which are unique as well as interesting let’s look at some of those features in detail –
- The first and foremost feature of leadership is that it should not be biased because great leaders are never biased towards anybody and they tend to give equal chances to all the people, hence for example if there are 2 people while one is relative or known to the leader while other is unknown but capable of doing the task than under good leadership it is the second person who will be given the chance to do the task and not the first person.
- Leadership is emotional in nature as people connect with the leader emotionally and not professionally so the follower of the leaders follow their leader not for their personal benefit rather for the bigger goal or objective which the leader has set or envisaged.
- Another feature of leadership is that there is no use of force and temptation given to the people on the part of leader and people join or follow the leader voluntarily. Hence if people are forced or tempted to follow an individual then it cannot be called as leadership.
- Leadership is characterized by the personality of the leader and not by the goal or objective so if the leader is aggressive then he or she is likely to follow authoritative leadership style and if the leader is generous then he or she is likely to follow the democratic style of leadership. Hence personal traits of the leader are likely to have more impact on leadership and its style than any other factor and majority of times followers of the leader also imbibe the personality of the leader into their way of work and life.
- Leadership and communication skill go hand in hand because without good communication skills it is very difficult if not impossible to be a good leader as great leaders are good orators also. It is not necessary that communication is expressive it can be symbolic also as great leaders communicate and take people along with them and not behind them.
- Conviction is another major feature of leadership because if the leader himself or herself is not sure about the goal then it is not possible for him or her to convince the followers to achieve the desired goal. It is the conviction which separates winners from the losers and leadership is no exception
As one can see from the above that leadership has many unique features or characteristics and while calling any person a leader one should keep in above points in mind as there is a very thin line between leader and manager and people make this mistake of calling every manager a leader.