How to become an effective leader?

As with most popular sayings, there is some truth in the adage, “Great leaders are born, not made.” To some extent, the capacity for great leadership is innate. However, learning how to be a more effective leader is within everyone’s grasp – whether you lead multiple teams, an entire company or just one staff member.

Leadership Qualities Everyone Can Use

Here are a few of the qualities and traits of great leaders that you can learn and practice:

• Self-assessment: Effective leaders periodically take stock of their personal strengths and shortcomings. They ask: “What do I like to do? What am I really good at?” “What are my areas of weakness, and what do I dislike doing?” Knowing your areas of weakness does not make you weak; on the contrary, it allows you to delegate to others who have those abilities, in order to achieve the common goal. Rather than clinging to the false belief that they can do it all, great leaders hire people who complement, rather than supplement, their skills. Working on your areas of weaknesses will improve your leadership ability – and recognizing them makes you more human.
• Sharp perception: Do you know how people really perceive you? Effective leaders do. They have an easy level of honest communication with their teams and their peers, and a thorough understanding of how they are perceived. Testing others’ perception of you can be as simple as observing their behavior. Are your co-workers and team members relaxed around you? Does all conversation stop when you enter the room? If you really want to know what people think, just ask them. You may receive feedback that you’re not listening or showing appreciation as well as you could be. If you’ve established an environment of honest and open communication, you should be able to ask about your good qualities and the areas you need to improve on. Your staff will appreciate your effort.
• Responsive to the group’s needs: Being perceptive can also help a leader be more effective in knowing the needs of the team. Some teams value trust over creativity; others prefer a clear communicator to a great organizer. Building a strong team is easier when you know the values and goals of each individual, as well as what they need from you as their leader.
• Knowing the organization: Effective leaders know the organization’s overall purpose and goals, and the agreed-upon strategies to achieve these goals; they also know how their team fits into the big picture, and the part they play in helping the organization grow and thrive. Full knowledge of your organization – inside and out – is vital to becoming an effective leader. 

Learning Negotiation, Team Building, Motivation and Goal Setting Skills

Today’s business professionals know that in order to achieve success, they must commit to lifelong learning and skill building. Enrolling in online business courses is one route to improving your leadership skill set, and earning valuable leadership certification.

A good leader is a good follower as the saying goes. But to be one good leader is a natural skill to each and everyone. There are many ways to do that. Education, Money and Power are oftentimes the criteria of a leader, the likes of a politician, businessmen, educators etc. But all of them have the same skills as , they learn and influence, motivate, inspire their people.

Be a brother or friend. People wants the friend not a boss. 

Effective leadership is mainly being able to convince others of following you and performing the tasks that serve your interest, in which you need to link them to each person plans for development and growth.
To become an effective leader, you need to understand your team(s), know the motivators for performing the tasks, even if that means you need to get your hands dirty (for a while), have some empathy, and keep an eye on personal circumstanses.

First, let's be clear that there is huge difference between a Leader and a Manager.
Leaders lead from the front. 
A true leader inspire its' followers and if any organization can find such a leader (no matter what the designation is), he/she can win loyality of the employees. 
As regards the question, "Do you monitor every aspect of the job? Do you remotely observe?"  It does not reflect 'loyality' nor a leader (here I mean Manager) suppose to do that. 
As a Manager, if I can win the loyality of my team, I should be kicked out of my job. 
Why should I monitor my team remotely?  I should lead them in a way that they feel proud to work for me.
I share a magic with you. 
Never say your team, "Do this job or that."  Make a habit to start, "Let's do this". 
It will create an atmosphere of great harmony and you will team's support. 
And then you don't need to measure their effectiveness or performance on paper, people (your customers (both internal & external), will speak volume about it (it may be both 'negative' and 'positive'). 

You can be a good leader.
I have few points for your consideration.
Be puntual and keep your time.
Value your time and others time.
Quick decisions and retrievals do not help.
For serious decisions, take your time and weigh all factors and defend your decision with logic.
Give respect and get respect.
Do not fire your team member in front of others.
Keep your knowledge upto date.
Do not depend on 'local advisors'.
Learning goes until the death time.
Never stop your learning process.
Do not make false promises and when soemthing is promised keep to your words.
Be honest in your dealings and in your approach.
Conduct good quality meetings on the basis of knowledge sharing.
Know your team and learn their strength and weakness. 
Set realistic Targets and encourage members to achieve them with hard work.
When it is the right occasion appreciate your team member.
Pet on the back for a nice job done.
A few nice words are better than a few hundred bucks.
Learn to become a coach and a mentor - share new technologies and ideas with your team on routine basis as you learn them.
Support your new arrivals with good familiarisation program.
Observe them and help them catch their business fast with the help of old team members.
Enhance your skills and provide your team an equal opportunity to enhance their skills.
Maintain a system of Annual reporting and record individual and Team Targets (in addition to Corporate Targets) for achievement in the next one year.
Follow-up and evaluate performance on sound performance indicators with targets linked to their status elevation. 
Must know the obstacles & dificulties faced by the team, their needs and always treat them humanly.

Know what is the values and rules you should add and play in the team.
plan, motivate and deliver.

I respect all the previously posted comments, but; Leadership is part of the person charactre, you can not study and learn Leadership, by watching the kids you may notice who is going to be a Leader.
However; you may practice this skill and deploy it effictively.

Lead by example

As the saying goes "Great leaders are born, not made" To some extent, the capacity for great leadership is innate.
A good leader should have few qualities such as self-asseesment, sharp perception, responsive to group's needs, knowing the organization, comuunication skills, motivating teams, team building, risk taking ability, vision and goal setting.

Leader is to inspire his team.
He should motivate and give the direction to drive.
He does not need to observe closely but the team follows your instructions/directions without any hesitation.
He should build his tem character & it is only possible if he is doing the same which he directed to his team.
But one thing is to be cleared that leader & manager are different categories.
It is not necessary that a good manager is also a leader.