Being a good leader is hard. You’re responsible for thousands of people and millions of dollars’ worth of equipment. Your actions ripple across every aspect of a country or a business and shape the way everyone in the organization works. It takes time and patience to be a great leader, but if you’re willing to put in the work, it’s one of the most rewarding positions in the world.
In order to be a good leader you need to be focused, optimistic, and energetic in your outlook. You need a vision and ability to build relationships with others. These are just a few of the character traits that go into making a great leader.
Here are some important characteristics of a leadership mindset.
Integrity
Leadership is what can make or break a company. For it to be effective, characteristics such as integrity are essential. When you display this trait, your followers will trust and respect you making establishing relationships with them much easier. Great leaders never lose sight of their values. Their integrity holds them above the fray, and they genuinely care about those who work for them and with them.
Accountability
Being accountable for your actions means you own up to any mistakes that you make. You don’t blame others for bad situations, and you don’t make excuses for things that were out of your control. Being a great leader means taking responsibility for the final outcome – both positive and negative. Until you take responsibility, you are a victim and will never reach your goals.
Read this post on Thrive global about accountability: Accountability…who are you going to tell
Empowerment
Good leader is not always in the spotlight, but instead stands in the background next to their team members. These leaders trust that everyone on their team is fully capable of handling any challenge they face. They have faith in their employees and are willing to empower them with as much freedom as possible. An empowered employee will feel valued, respected, and trusted by a leader that trusts them and believes in their capabilities to get the job done.
Confidence
A leader who lacks confidence in his or her abilities will convey that uncertainty to his or her team, which will most likely result in a lack of productivity and motivation. However, a confident leader will encourage trust and collaboration amongst the team members. A good leader will be able to maintain his or her forward momentum and help his or her team move forward as well, while still keeping them motivated throughout the process.
Loyalty
The best leaders are those who offer true loyalty to their team members. These people have a network of influence that is far reaching. They understand the real cost of loyalty and its worth. They also understand that true loyalty is reciprocal. Because of this, they express that loyalty in tangible ways that benefit the member of their teams
Learning
Good leaders know everything is within them. They see everything in terms of possibility. Good leaders are humble enough to admit they don’t know it all. That’s why they consistently look for ways to improve, find answers, discover new talents and abilities, and grow. They will travel far distances to learn and gather precious knowledge These leaders truly understand that being the best starts with being willing to do anything necessary to find success.
Authenticity
Values are the underlying beliefs that guide an individual’s thinking. Every person and organization has values. A leader must understand the values they are supposed to represent, as well as convey them to others.
Honesty
We live in a complicated world where trust and loyalty are sometimes hard to find. The best leaders are able to establish a connection with their peers that goes beyond what words can express. When you believe in someone, it doesn’t matter how many times they fail, you still have faith in them. When someone can reach that level of loyalty, it gives them the chance to lead others towards success. Here’s a related post about honesty on Thriveglobal.
Humility
“It may seem counterintuitive, but humility is perhaps the single most important quality of an effective leader,” said Josh Skalniak, public relations manager with Lambert, a nationally ranked strategic communications firm. “Studies have shown that humble leaders are more likely to inspire collaboration and increase performance, productivity and the company’s overall bottom line. Plus, humble leaders tend to seek the advancement of the goals of the organization more so than leaders who don’t score high on humility, because they are not focused on themselves, but rather their employees and the health and growth of the company.”
“However, too many leaders today lack humility and lead by power, fear and intimidation—those qualities may get results in the short-term, but they certainly will kill a company’s bottom line over time,” Skalniak added. “Employees who work under certain types of these power-leaders can build up resentment fairly quickly. That resentment almost always spreads throughout an office like a virus, causing the company’s morale to plummet.”
Now, if a power-leader is not concerned with company morale, Skalniak emphasized that they should be. “There’s a direct correlation between employee morale and a company’s bottom line,” he said. “When morale drops, productivity falls along with it, because employees become disengaged. In fact, one Gallup report found that disengaged employees cost U.S. companies up to $550 billion per year. Of course that’s not the only reason a leader should be concerned with morale. As a leader, you should respect and even honor your employees for leaving their families every day to follow your lead and make your vision for the company a reality.”
Communication
Good communication makes a good leader. Communication is the foundation of successful leadership in any organization. Good communication skills make conflict easier to resolve. The ability to communicate well helps a leader negotiate deals and speak before large groups of people with confidence.