20 Qualities a Great Leader Must Posses
Leadership is not about how big the institution you are leading is, Leadership start from leading a family, group of people, a team or a meeting. developing and owning leadership skills can help you succeed at any stage in your career. Leadership skills include a combination of soft and technical skills, such as using your interpersonal skills to motivate your team or applying your technical knowledge to solve problems and complete tasks. Learning about the qualities of effective leaders can help you develop and apply these skills in your workplace.
In this great article, we shall be discussing the 20 qualities that make a great leader and offer tips on how to improve yours.
1. Have good Communication skills.
Being able to communicate effectively is perhaps the most important of all the qualities a good leader must posses. Leader must learn the right way to express and address their followers. Communication skills may take a lifetime to master so leaders should be consistent in improving themselves daily mostly in the area of good communication.
2. Empathy
the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person, also the ability to understand another person’s point of view or the result of such understanding. Leaders need to be considerate and compassionate. Having the ability to put others in their shoes. “It this is me, what will I do?”
Having empathy for your team members means identifying their struggles and showing understanding toward them. When you show care and concern about your employees, it can help you develop stronger professional relationships.
Leaders need to understand how the people around them feel about projects, decisions, morale, direction and company or team vision. Strong leaders show empathy by recognizing and considering their employees’ feelings.
3. Honesty and integrity.
Being honest with your team can improve employee morale and motivation and also skyrocket your integrity among your followers. Allow your team members to work autonomously, make their own decisions and apply their skills and knowledge in the workplace, they may feel more valued for their professional expertise.
Try to be honest with the resources of the organization or the area your are to lead. To be honest with team members also include involving them in decision-making processes when possible and empower them to make choices in their roles. Invite them to help define reasonable expectations for their role, set their own goals and create processes that guide their efforts.
A good leader must have all these:
- Strategic thinking
- Vision and foresight
- Decisiveness
- Positive attitude
- Empowerment of team members
- Active listening
- Creativity
- Flexibility and adaptability
- Openness to feedback
- Conflict resolution skills
- Emotional intelligence
- Transparency
- Strong work ethic
- Team building abilities
- Risk-taking inclination
- Empathy and understanding towards the needs of their team.
- They lead by example.
Key takeaways:
An effective leader possesses various qualities ranging from innovation, problem solving and a growth mindset to empathy and patience.
Learning about these qualities can help leaders develop and apply these skills in the workplace, enabling them to motivate their teams and achieve their goals.
Understanding preferred leadership styles, knowing their strengths and where they can improve and finding a mentor are ways leaders can improve their capabilities.
4. Accountability.
Taking ownership of responsibilities and positive and negative outcomes is key to effective leadership. Leaders should be able to take responsibility for their team’s work, as well as their own. This may involve apologizing for mistakes and developing new systems and processes to avoid errors in the future.
5. Active listening.
Successful leaders should be able to give, but also receive feedback from team members and listen. To actively listen, a leader can listen to the words being spoken but also understand the meaning behind them. You can practice active listening by minimizing distractions when having conversations, showing interest by using non-verbal cues and summarizing the speaker’s words to show your understanding.
6. Collaboration.
Often, leaders need to collaborate internally across departments and externally with vendors, third-party companies and contractors. It’s important that they know how to find common goals and create partnerships for the most successful and mutually beneficial outcome. Good collaboration often involves prioritizing communication between parties to ensure your goals align and all participants understand your expectations.
7. Courage.
Effective leaders should have the courage to do what is in the best interest of the team and company at all times. There may be times when leaders need to make unpopular or difficult decisions, so having courage can help them accept the difficulty of their role and make necessary decisions with confidence.
Additionally, leaders may need courage to pursue new challenges. You can show courage by accepting more responsibilities or pushing yourself to gain new skills.
8. Flexibility.
A flexible leader can adjust and maintain ownership of the team, project or meeting as needed. They’re open to new ideas and change as long as it moves the team and company forward. Being flexible can help you adapt to changes in your workplace, project or stakeholders’ expectations so you can adjust your strategy for achieving goals.
9. Focus.
A good leader sets a practical vision and suitable, achievable targets. They know how to set SMART goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. Using the SMART goal framework can establish a strong foundation for achieving success.
10. Growth mindset.
Leaders do well when they adopt a growth mindset. Circumstances often change from when a project, challenge or issue began. Leaders consider that technology may have changed or personal issues may have arisen for their team. If they can keep a growth mindset and adapt, they can overcome challenges to continue to make progress toward goals.
11. Eager to learn.
Leaders are effective and inspirational when they stay knowledgeable of trends and the topics they are leading. Not only does this help leaders improve their skills and contribute to their purposes, but it also helps to inspire the team to continue learning, too. For example, when you commit to continuing your education or taking part in professional development opportunities, it may motivate your team to invest in their own learning.
12. Innovation.
Leaders often develop ideas, solve problems and complete tasks that require innovation and creativity. They encourage creativity and innovation in their teams through activities like brainstorming or prototyping. Good leaders actively listen to their employees and motivate them to think creatively or consider new perspectives.
13. Optimism.
Optimistic leaders show they believe their company is working toward a better future. They value their team members’ contributions to achieve that goal. Effective leaders often plan ahead and maintain a positive outlook through changes and transitions. Being positive during stressful or adverse situations can help your team manage difficulties effectively.
14. Passion.
Leaders can motivate their teams by demonstrating their passion in the workplace. The team leader should be passionate about workplace goals, creating unity among their team to work together. When you believe in the value of your work, and you show your care for the work you do, it can motivate and inspire the members of your team to engage with their work.
15. Patience.
Effective leaders know that mistakes, miscommunications and failures are part of the workplace and that having patience can help their team overcome workplace errors.
Patience involves understanding that mistakes can happen, accepting mistakes when they happen and focusing your efforts on staying productive. You may also show patience when helping employees learn new roles and responsibilities since it can take time for those you supervise to gain new skills.
16. Problem-solving.
Developing problem-solving skills allows teams to move past challenges with minimal disruption. Good leaders also make training a priority for their employees, allowing them to develop skills to do their work and minimize the potential for problems. Being able to identify problems and use critical thinking skills to resolve them is an important leadership quality.
17. Resilience.
Leaders are perceptive and know how to handle themselves in both positive and potentially difficult situations. This might mean creating new processes, hiring new people or changing the status quo. A resilient leader focuses on the end result, avoids distractions and leads by example.
18. Respect and loyalty.
Effective leaders treat their teams with respect, which can help them gain respect in return. They value feedback and want to hear the opinions of their teammates. Effective leaders show their respect by empowering their employees to make decisions and use their expertise to achieve goals. Showing respect builds their sense of worth and commitment to the organization.
19. Self-awareness.
Successful leaders express the skills and knowledge required for a certain role in an organization or a specialty. They know their abilities and limitations and advocate for themselves based on their self-awareness.
Effective leaders make reflection a priority to understand their own strengths and weaknesses. Based on their self-awareness, they can work toward improving their abilities and applying their strengths to help their team succeed.
20. Transparency.
Being open and honest makes work more efficient and enjoyable. Good leaders consider the consequences of their decisions and actions for both teams and customers, setting a role model for employees to do the same. They ask for help when needed and provide honest and constructive feedback.
Remember that a leader is not born, it’s created. To be a leader you have to learn how to be a follower too First. Seeing yourselves as equal to your followers can really help you in achieving leadership goals. Leadership takes wisdom, patience and a lots of sacrifices.
Stay humble as you continue in the journey of your leadership.
Stay safe and make others around you safe too.