According to personal understanding, the article published by Zenger, Folkman, & Edinger (2011) focused on complementary skills required with extraordinary and natural leadership trait. The authors discussed a situation where Tom was working for a Fortune 500 organization as a sales executive. In his overall work span, Tom was appreciated by the organization and peers for his efforts, and generated results simultaneously. Besides, he was a benchmark for other executives working for the organization.
Moreover, Tom possessed set of skills that was beyond excellent result generation. He had demonstrated his skills in identifying a potential problem, provided solutions, and demonstrated traits for making strategic decisions that could bring a synergy impact for the organization. Further, Tom had a clean record of excellence throughout his career span. He was not involved in destructive activities in corporation that could sabotage his career development and survival. However, he was shocked to discover that a colleague without a decorated career run was selected for the prime post of leadership by the upper management.
According to the authors, the core reason was lack of interaction and complementary skills that were absent in Tom significantly. The upper management could not discover skills such as interaction and adaptability in Tom, which result in development hurdles for the designation. According to the article, the upper management preferred Tom to remain at a similar designation and continue exhibition of his expertise. The authors argued that good performance is an initiative for achievement rather conclusion. A good performance should be supported by various complementary skills and attributes for reaching a better milestone and demonstrating an impact of synergy to the organization and career simultaneously.
Informational Assistance of the Article
After reading the article, I recognized that leadership trait is not an only attribute required for career development. Management perspectives of the modern era evaluate a resource on different platforms prior to promoting decisions and appraisals. Personally, I would not blame this approach of the management since everyone demands the best for the best. Selecting an employee as a corporate representative would require various sets of skills for excellent outcomes and verdict justification.
The article specified that acquisition of few essential skills before expecting a career growth and selection for leadership position are essential. Firstly, I need to have an attribute of active listening as a leader to empathize the concerns of followers. According to Llopis (2013), employees expect a constructive attention, feedbacks, and support from leaders, either official or unofficial. As a leader, I need to possess this ability in order to earn breed loyalty in the organization. Besides, active listening will assist me convincing the followers for few objectives that solely comprise with my interests.
In order to become a successful leader, I also need to demonstrate the ability of strong emotional intelligence. According to Bradberry (2014), being an emotional intelligent leader is a secondary definition of smart leader. As a leader, this skill is essential for me to negotiate interests of my followers with the organization without sabotaging the relationship. Effective and successful leaders tend to reach a mutual decision without compromising the resources and relationships. Under this context, acquisition of emotional intelligence is extremely significant and discussed by the authors subliminally. Being a leader is tough and better leader a challenge, which I aim to address with strong determination and complementary skills.
References
Bradberry, T. (2014). Emotional Intelligence - EQ. Forbes. Retrieved 27 August 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2014/01/09/emotional-intelligence/#78e355ca3ecb
Llopis, G. (2013). 6 Ways Effective Listening Can Make You a Better Leader. Forbes. Retrieved 27 August 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2013/05/20/6-effective-ways-listening-can-make-you-a-better-leader/#40d05bc9bf6c
Zenger, J. H., Folkman, J., & Edinger, S. (2011). Making Yourself Indispensable. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 27 August 2016 from https://hbr.org/2011/10/making-yourself-indispensable
