what is leadership 
business leadership is the capacity of a company s management to set and achieve challenging goals they must take fast and decisive action when necessary outperform the competition and inspire others to perform at the highest level possible it can be difficult to place a value on leadership or other qualitative aspects of a company unlike quantitative metrics that are commonly tracked and much easier to compare between companies leadership can also speak to a more holistic approach such as the tone a company s management sets or the culture of the company that management establishes individuals with strong leadership skills in the business world often rise to executive positions such as ceo chief executive officer coo chief operating officer cfo chief financial officer president and chair understanding leadershipleadership provides direction for a company and its workers employees must know the direction in which the company is headed and who to follow to reach the destination leadership involves showing workers how to effectively perform their responsibilities and regularly supervising the completion of their tasks leadership is also about setting a positive example for staff to follow being excited about the work being motivated to learn new things and helping out as needed in both individual and team activities leadership involves setting and achieving goals taking action and beating the competition but it also relates to the tone of the company s management and what kind of culture is built for the employees the components of effective leadershipeffective leadership requires a strong character leaders must exhibit honesty integrity trustworthiness and ethics they act in line with how they speak and earn the right to be responsible for others success in the company strong leadership involves clear communication skills leaders speak with and listen to staff members respond to questions and concerns and are empathetic leaders use effective communication skills to move the company forward and achieve new levels of success true leadership sees where the company is headed and plans the steps necessary to get there visualizing what s possible following trends in the industry and taking risks to grow the business are all required of leaders productive leadership shows optimism and provides positive energy for staff good leaders are supportive and truly concerned about the well being of others leaders find answers to challenges and they reassure and inspire workers when things go awry leaders find ways for staff to work together and achieve maximum results efficiently and effectively influential business leaders include jeff bezos warren buffett bill gates and elon musk they shaped their industries and the broader economy investopedia looks at how they developed winning strategies inspired their employees and achieved success 1an example of leadershipjack welch exhibited leadership as chief executive officer ceo of general electric co from 1981 to 2001 he played an integral part in hundreds of acquisitions in emerging markets and increased ge s market value from 12 billion to 410 billion at the time of his retirement 2welch insisted everyone at ge embrace change because the world is constantly changing managers and employees had to continuously reinvent themselves and their work to continue evolving company operations and produce greater output welch hired managers who shared his vision of ge had endless amounts of energy and were able to encourage employees to stay engaged in their work he sought managers who created developed and refined ideas for the future and found ways to make them a reality he also insisted that managers work side by side with employees as a way of understanding what they were doing and why managers and employees were more empowered as a result of welch s leadership style products gained higher quality and customer satisfaction and profits increased dramatically 