Having qualities of a leader enable you to do your best work while also encouraging others within your team to follow your lead. But great leadership, like any attribute, is a skill. If you’ve ever wondered if you have leadership qualities, know that like any skill set, you can learn it. All it takes is the awareness of what those qualities are and dedicated practice.
Let\’s take a closer look at how to assess your leadership qualities and how you can help them grow.
What Are The Qualities Of A Good Leader?
Great leadership is about more than giving instructions or delegating tasks. Leaders understand the needs of the people they\’re working with. They also understand how to listen and adapt based on what they are hearing. The specific traits of a leader can vary depending on what field they are in, but ultimately, the basic qualities of a good leader won’t waver.
Leadership attributes are all about contributing to a more productive and effective workplace. Some leadership qualities for a resume might be terms such as:
- Conflict resolution or conflict mediation (the ability to solve disputes)
- Strategic planning (the ability to look ahead)
- Extreme creativity (the ability to think outside the box)
Leaders understand the need to stay calm no matter how hectic or fast-paced their external environment may be. A great leader is bold, confident, and driven to take action effectively and efficiently.
6 Basic Leadership Qualities
Developing a list of leadership qualities could be exhaustive, but there are six basic qualities you can expect to find in every leader:
- Emotional intelligence
- Confidence
- Good communicator
- Proactive versus reactive
- Creativity
- Willingness to get out of the way
Let\’s take a look at each important quality and how they\’re critical leadership skills in their own ways:
Emotional intelligence: A great leader understands how to gauge how their team members are feeling and lets that guide their interactions.
Confidence: A great leader makes a decision and sticks to it. They\’re decisive and bold.
Good communicator: Effective communication within a team is crucial to how well it operates. This means participating in active listening.
Proactive versus reactive: The best leaders are the ones who think ahead rather than reacting to everything that happens.
Creativity: Great leaders create. They approach their work almost as if it\’s an art form — willing to experiment, try new things, and think in a way that others before them might not have dared to.
Willingness to get out of the way: Great leaders inspire. They know how to identify talented team members, delegate tasks to them based on their strengths, and give them the space they need to work effectively.
Why Are They Important?
So why are leadership qualities important? Because they help you set the tone for the rest of your team and organization. When a team faces any kind of doubt about how to proceed on a project or initiative, it\’s the leader who they\’ll look to for guidance. The more leadership qualities you possess, the more confidently you\’ll be able to lead your team forward in a direction they can believe in.
Having leadership qualities can also help develop more leaders within your organization. An NIH study found it helps to approach supervisory positions as leaders rather than as managers because \”Leaders produce leaders and managers produce followers.\” While often only one person on a team can be a true leader with decision-making ability, having a team full of people with leadership qualities is advantageous in just about any situation. You\’ll grow a workplace culture that values positive attitudes, independent thought, proactivity, and decisiveness.
How To Get Leadership Qualities
There are numerous ways you can get the leadership qualities you need to succeed professionally. You can follow the social media accounts of great business leaders. You can read countless books on the subject, or conduct internet search after internet search. While these approaches can get you results, they\’ll take a long time and there\’s no assurance you\’ll get the information you need.
Your best course of action is to identify a training program for your specific field that gives you the skills and knowledge you\’ll need so you can operate confidently in that area. A great leader isn\’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and do the work needed to become a master at their craft. Once you obtain a position, you can exercise leadership qualities whether you\’re in a position of leadership or not. Leadership qualities benefit you no matter your role and will only help you advance further in your career from any position.
Understanding how to demonstrate leadership qualities comes down to possessing expertise in your field and having the ability to communicate that expertise with a team of people. It also means understanding how to interact with that team in a way that optimizes their results and yours as well.
Start Building Your Leadership Qualities
When evaluating what makes a great leader, it\’s important to understand the distinction between a leader and a manager. A manager is a title, and they can only manage once an organization hands them that title. Great leaders can lead no matter what their job description. They just need the knowledge and confidence to do so. Once you understand what makes a great leader, there\’s nothing stopping you from becoming one. This can have an incredible impact on your long-term career goals — it can help you advance farther and faster in whatever you choose to do.
The bottom line is that you can\’t become an effective leader without possessing the appropriate leadership qualities. Building your leadership qualities is like any discipline — it requires an intimate understanding of what it takes to lead.
Becoming a great leader means being an exemplary operator in whatever field you\’re in. To do that, you should select the right training program to help guide your career path. Southern Careers Institute can help. SCI offers flexible training programs in a wide variety of industries in which you can apply your leadership skills.
Let SCI help you become a great leader, receive recognition, and get the promotion and raise that you want. For more on how we can help, contact us today.
Sources
https://2009-2017.state.gov/m/a/os/65759.htm
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5075368/
https://southerncareer.wpengine.com/
https://southerncareer.wpengine.com/programs/
