Leadership qualities for success at work

Leadership was earlier defined by a person's traits or abilities and it was believed that strong, decisive, clear, passionate and charismatic people make for good leaders. Scholars quickly learned that traits alone are not sufficient, bringing in the idea of situational leadership - certain people, with specific traits, in particular situations make good leaders. However, even this approach failed to articulate the definition of leadership. Today's leaders need to have a global mindset, an array of strategic and tacticalskills, task and relational competence. As Fons Trompenaars, a renowned Dutch organisational theorist and author in the field of cross-cultural communication once said: "We have found that the only competence that truly matters is the competence to reconcile dilemmas or to integrate opposites - not by compromise, not by giving in to the other, but by seeking optimal outcomes by integrating opposites."

Global business across national cultures can be fraught with challenges. However, strategic and skillful communication is at the heart of global success. Indians, on an average, tend to speak indirectly and consider relationships just as important as or more important than the task at hand. Speaking succinctly and putting relational issues as secondary to work are essential to foster effective communication strategies. Additionally, it is equally important for one to communicate across organisational hierarchies, to be an effective leader.