Want to be a great leader? Check out these 5 critical traits of great leadership

“Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them.” – Robert Jarvik 

Leadership – is it born or is it bred? That’s a debate that’s been taking place for years, with subjective and inconclusive results at best. However, when evaluating great leadership, there are certain commonalities and patterns of traits and skills that tend to present. Today we are sharing a list of the 5 most common traits of great leaders.

1. Vision – As Robert Jarvik says, leaders are visionaries. Therefore, great leaders must have vision, this is absolutely critical. Without vision and knowing the path they are taking, how is one able to effectively lead? Leaders must be able to motivate and inspire people to action, and they can do so through communicating their vision in a compelling, passionate and clear manner. A leader who can do this is able to motivate people into acting with passion and purpose, ensuring that everyone is working toward a common goal, preventing the company and team members from moving in different directions. The result? Everyone contributes to the forward momentum of the organization.
2. Communication – it’s an absolute fundamental leadership skill. This is how ideas, results and information are shared, initiatives implemented and so much more. Communication is about more than just relaying information, it’s also, and perhaps more importantly about listening. Great leaders listen and recognize that this is a fundamental piece of their communication skills.
3. Delegation – Simply put, great leaders are great at delegating. Delegation is about more than just getting things off of your plate. Doing big things means getting work done through yourself and others – you can’t do it all by yourself, and you’re not necessarily the best suited to lead every task. Delegation is about recognizing who has the best skills to manage, lead and organize specific projects, and trusting them to do so.
4. Decision Making – This is probably the most basic duty that any leader must tend to. To be highly effective, you can’t be afraid to make tough decisions on the fly. Great leaders also stick to their decisions once they’re made, unless something comes up and dictates otherwise.
5. Integrity – Employees want to trust the individuals that set the tone, pace and direction of their place of employment, after all, they spend a great deal of their time there, doing their part to make the company succeed. To gain that trust, leaders must have integrity, be fair and honest, treating individuals as they would like to be treated.

Leadership consists of many required skills and traits to be labelled as great, here we have listed 5 of the most common ones. For more information on leadership, this article in Fast Company outlines their top 5 picks of the characteristics of great management – enjoy your leadership journey.

 

What skills and traits do you think are critical to constitute great leadership? Thanks for reading, don’t forget to share/tweet/like our blog just underneath this paragraph. And don’t forget, we’re always here to help with your business efficiency needs.

Thanks For Sharing!