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...
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