What Makes a Good Leader
Integrity, self-awareness, bravery, respect, compassion, and resilience are some of the qualities that make a successful and good leader. They have to be exhibiting gratitude, interacting well, and developing agility while flexing their impact and sharing the vision. Examine the ways in which all levels of your organization can acquire and enhance these essential leadership attributes.
How To Identify a Good Leader
Based upon decades of research and the experiences working with leaders at thousands of organizations around the world, It was found that the best leaders consistently possess certain fundamental qualities and skills. These are some apex qualities, in no particular order, of a successful leader .
Integrity
Being truthful and demonstrating a constant, unwavering commitment to high moral and ethical standards and ideals is the practice of integrity. Integrity is defined in ethics as being sincere, true, or honest in one’s behavior. Hypocrisy can be opposed by integrity. It views internal consistency as a virtue and advises persons who hold beliefs that appear to be at odds with one another to either reconcile them or change them.
Integrity is a vital quality in a leader, both personally and professionally. Top-level executives should pay particular attention to it since they are the ones setting the direction of the company and making many other crucial decisions. Because of the potential blind spot for businesses regarding leader integrity, be sure to emphasize to managers at all levels the value of honesty and integrity.
Respect
One of the most crucial things a leader can do on a daily basis is to treat people with respect. It promotes trust, lessens tension and conflict, and increases your performance. It takes more than just not being disrespectful to create a culture of respect. Although there are various methods to demonstrate respect, it usually begins with demonstrating that you genuinely value the opinions of others and trying to foster a sense of community at work, both of which are essential elements of promoting fairness, diversity, and inclusion.
Communication
Good communication and effective leadership go hand in hand. The most effective leaders are adept communicators who can convey information in a number of ways, from asking for feedback and utilizing active listening strategies to sharing facts and telling stories. They have good communication skills with a wide spectrum of individuals from various backgrounds, positions, levels, locations, and more, both in writing and vocally. Your company’s leaders’ ability to communicate with each other and with quality will have a direct impact on how well your business plan performs.Compassion
Among the most potent and significant traits of a leader is compassion. It takes more than just listening and trying to understand others, or even just demonstrating empathy, as compassion calls on leaders to put what they learn into practice. Our research indicates that when an individual voice their concerns or raises an issue, they will not feel fully heard if their leader does not act on the information. This is the foundation of compassionate leadership, which promotes cooperation, trust, and lowers employee turnover in businesses.
Influence
“Influence” may sound unseemly to some individuals. You cannot do the task by yourself, though, thus in order to be a leader you must be able to persuade others to accomplish it. One of the key characteristics of motivating, successful leaders is their ability to persuade others via the deliberate application of suitable influencing techniques. Manipulation is not the same as influence, which calls for authenticity and openness. High degrees of trust and emotional intelligence are necessary for it. Like a dog can smell fear, employees can sense a lack of authenticity.
Gratitude
Being grateful can result in improved sleep, a decrease in worry and sadness, and a rise in self-esteem. Gratitude sincere might even improve your leadership abilities. Even though the majority of people said they would be willing to work harder for a supervisor who showed appreciation, very few people routinely say “thank you” in professional contexts. The most effective leaders are adept at expressing gratitude often to their colleagues.
Courage
Speaking up at work can be challenging, whether you want to provide a fresh perspective, give a direct report feedback, or bring up an issue with a superior. Because it requires bravery to do what’s right, courage is a crucial leadership quality. This is especially true when doing the right thing is not popular in an organization. Leaders who foster a culture of high psychological safety at work empower their staff members to voice their opinions and concerns openly and honestly without worrying about the consequences. This promotes a culture of coaching that values bravery and telling the truth. Leaders and team members alike can make decisive decisions that advance the cause when they possess courage.
Self-Awareness
Although this is a more introspective characteristic, humility and self-awareness are essential traits of a leader. Being a more self-aware person and identifying your own advantages and disadvantages will help you lead others more skillfully. Do you have any idea how other people see you and how you conduct yourself at home and at work? Spend some time learning about the four facets of self-awareness and how to enhance each one.
Resilience
Resilience is more than the ability to bounce back from obstacles and setbacks — it’s the ability to respond adaptively to challenges. Practicing resilient leadership
means you’ll project a positive outlook that will help others maintain the emotional strength they need to commit to a shared vision, and the courage to move forward and overcome setbacks. A good leader focuses on resilience, both taking care of themselves and also prioritizing employee wellbeing, too — thereby enabling better performance for themselves and their teams.
