Characteristics of a Great Leader
- Based on study and experiences.
“When everyone in the team is empowered and trusted to manifest their full potential, each person becomes capable of so much more, which makes the company capable of so much more.”
1. Respect
Being able to treat people with respect is one of the most important things a leader can do. Efforts made in this direction will ease tensions and conflicts, build trust, and increase effectiveness. In creating a culture of respect, there is more to it than just ensuring that disrespect is not present. Respectfulness can be shown in many different ways. Start with simply being a good listener who sincerely seeks to understand the perspective of others.
2. Influence
For some people, “influence” sounds like a negative word. An effective leader must, however, be able to use logical, emotional, or cooperative appeals to influence others. To influence, one needs emotional intelligence and trust, as well as genuine and transparent communication.
3. Learning Agility
Learning agility is the ability to know what to do when you don’t know what to do. If you are a fast learner, or able to excel in unfamiliar circumstances, you might already be learning agile. The ability to foster and increase agility can be developed by anyone with experience and effort. Leaders who are great learners are really great leaders.
4. Self-awareness
Self-awareness and humility are paramount for leadership. The better you understand yourself and recognize your own strengths and weaknesses, the more effective you can be as a leader.
5. Communication
The best leadership is characterized by skilled communicators who are able to communicate in a variety of ways. Across roles, geographies, and social identities, you must be able to listen to and communicate with a diverse group of people. A business strategy's success is directly tied to the effectiveness and quality of communication among leaders within and across the organization. Positive conversations and effective communication can strengthen the company's culture.
6. Gratitude
A positive attitude towards thankfulness can boost self-esteem, reduce depression and anxiety, and improve sleep quality. A sense of gratitude can even improve your leadership abilities. Make a conscious effort to be thankful and appreciative. When people feel appreciated, they will work harder and deliver great results.
7. Courage
Speaking up at work is not always easy, whether you are voicing a novel idea, providing feedback, or raising a concern with someone higher up. Having courage is a key characteristic of a successful leader. Courage allows leaders to rise above problems and move forward rather than avoiding them or allowing conflicts to fester. An environment that fosters courage and truth-telling will have high levels of psychological safety and strong conversational skills.
8. Empathy
Empathy is correlated with job performance and is a critical part of emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness. Emotional intelligence and the ability to connect emotionally with employees are vital to leadership effectiveness. That’s because the way a leader makes you feel can impact your engagement, as well as your productivity.
9. Empowers team members
Empowers your team every day! That starts with daily motivation, relationship building, showing respect and creating solutions. A team's confidence in you should make them feel empowered. Having empowered individuals contributes to success by maximizing their potential and maximizing their contributions to the team as a whole.
10. Team Development
Sharing knowledge is just one of the many traits of strong leadership. A good leader not only develops themself but also helps others grow. There are various ways of recognizing team members, such as through training, lunchtime or over mealtime, or even through co-creating solutions to problems.
Here are some tips on how we can work on developing others:
Finding out what team members are interested in learning
Using mistakes as teaching opportunities
Consistently providing constructive criticism, no matter how challenging it may be
Encourage and train others the way you would have liked to be trained