So, you want to become a leader? Or maybe you already are one, but you want to be a better leader. There are 10 leadership skills or leadership qualities that employers and employees value above all else. You don’t necessarily need to master them all at once, but steadily working to improve each skill will make a big difference in your performance and the quality of your team.
Qualities of a Good Leader
Honesty
Creating a standard of honesty and integrity within your team will help your team to follow suit. An honest team will work better together, will open communication, and create a positive work environment that makes employees proud.
Set a high standard of honesty for yourself and then make sure that you communicate the importance of honesty. If you don’t communicate its importance, you lose a lot of the power that this message can bring.
Besides the value that honesty brings to your team, honesty is also highly valuable to your bosses. If they know that they can trust you and count on you to lead the team fairly, your bosses will feel confident in your performance.
Communication
Communication is one of the most valuable skills in any relationship. As a leader, fostering good communication can help you minimize office gossip and false rumours as well as help you to understand what is going on with your employees (by hearing it from them directly).
Delegation
You can’t do everything and certainly not everything all at the same time. And, isn’t the point of moving up the ladder to grow and take on new tasks? Well, you can’t take on new tasks if you are taking on both your job and your employees. Give your employees tasks that they can accomplish on their own. To help them grow, give them assignments that they can mainly do on their own, then supervise them and teach them to be able to complete each task on their own. Give your employees confidence and a sense of accomplishment and give yourself time to work on your responsibilities.
Confidence
Great leaders need to show confidence, confidence in themselves, their decision-making, and in the company. You want your employees to follow your direction with minimal to no resistance. They will do that if you show confidence in yourself and your decisions. You also want to build and maintain morale. When employees don’t feel confident about the company (whether it is the direction it is taking or its profitability), morale and productivity can suffer.
Commitment
Your dedication to your work will rub off on those around you, especially if they report to you. When employees see you working hard, it will make them feel good about putting in hard work themselves. Commitment is not just about working hard. If you commit to something, be it a meeting, an office party, or anything else, make sure that you do it. If your word doesn’t mean anything, employees will know, and you will have a difficult time being taken seriously.
Positive Attitude
You know how when you smile, people are likely to smile back at you? It is the same as a positive attitude. When you come into work with a good attitude, your employees are likely to mirror that back making for a nicer and more productive workplace.
Intuition
Intuition is a great leadership quality and one that can be harder to develop. Intuition shows that a leader can look beyond what is happening in the day-to-day and anticipate the needs of the company and your employees. If you don’t have natural intuition, learn to pay attention. Pay attention to what is happening in your company, in the market, and with your employees.
Passion
Like a positive attitude, passion can rub off on those around you. Passion attracts people who can help current employees work harder, but can also attract new talent. Talented people are likely to prefer working with a passionate boss that gets them excited about work.
Team Building/Inspiration
If your team isn’t getting along or maybe just isn’t familiar with one another, getting the job done can be painful and frustrating. Your ability as a leader to create relationships that allow teammates to interact better and be more willing to collaborate will make the sum of your team much greater than any individual.
Decisiveness
Yes, no, yes, no, yes? If that is you making a decision, then you have some work to do on your leadership skills. Develop tools that will help you make an informed decision that you can feel confident in and that you can explain if the decision ends up being incorrect. If there is a good reason for your decision, even if it is wrong, people will respect you and think of you as a great leader.
There are many qualities of a good leader, but these 10 listed here are great to start developing. Do you know of another quality that is not on the list that should be? Let me know!