Top 10 Leadership Characteristics
Behind every business card and every skyscraper is a leader; A leader who brings efficiency and progress. Yet, these kinds of leaders are hard to find. If you were a hiring agent looking for prospective employees what would you look for? Well here are the top 10 characteristics of truly effective leaders. If you want, you can even add some fun and have your staff (and maybe yourself) rate themselves on each of the following. You may be surprised to find that the new receptionist you just hired may be the most likely to be a natural leader for your company. Sites like SurveyMonkey can help you do this anonymously should you wish to do this.
1. Humbleness - Truly leading to serve. Why would humbleness be number one? Well if you walk into a retail store and are ignored and not treated with any respect do you want to make a purchase? Or if your boss seems to have no respect for you do you want to really keep working there? My guess would be no. Some big time business leaders may not follow this rule, but there are many who are extremely successful that do follow it. However, this rule is tricky because in today's society, many people enjoy pretending to be humble, but not really caring about others. Truly humble leaders will work to use his abilities to help others as much as he can.
2. Non-Judgmental and Observant - Observance is a trait that is difficult to find, but a true leader will always be aware of both his own behavior and the behaviors of those he works with. But he can't just observe, he must do so in a non-judgmental way. This means that while observing himself, he isn't belittling, he isn't making up excuses, but is still constantly trying to improve. Part of this is to set an example of good habits and problem-solving skills to other employees. If you bring the same approach to observing others, they'll become more trusting of you and will act more like themselves, which will let you see how they truly treat others, including those below and above them, which is an important showing of their true behavior.
3. Facing Problems and Solving Them - While observing, most leaders will identify certain problems in the workspace. The next step they should take is to fix these problems. He won't waste time gather unnecessary information for this, instead he'll jump right into fixing those issues. He'll do this by telling the 'problem' employees what has been observed, what his course of action will be, and then he'll work in partnership with the employee to solve whatever the issue may be. Ignoring these problems or becoming defensive of himself would be unproductive characteristics of a leader.
4. Constantly Improving - Truly successful businesses are always successful, even when the economy makes it difficult for most. This is because those businesses are always changing to accommodate new educational methods, processes, systems, policies, and constantly asking how they can make things better and more efficient. Sometimes this may involve cutting out certain things, or may mean adding new things in.
5. Fiscally Conservative - Overspending is one of the biggest mistakes a leader can make and in no way, shape or form fits into the mold of leadership qualities. Many failing businesses failed due to a leader who wasn't hesitant to spend money.
6. Invests in the Business - One way to define leadership is to ask the question, does he support his business? If a leader is constantly helping to grow his business by investing wisely, he'll find success. If he spends his money to improve the right areas, he'll get more money out of it than he put in, but it's all a true balancing act. Good leaders will be able to find that balance.
7. Communication is Clear, Consistent, and Concise - Communication is one of the key characteristics of an effective leader. It's also one of the most difficult. Good communication is also a balancing act. One where you can't give too much information, for fear of not being direct enough, but you have to give enough so that employees truly understand the situation. True leaders will be able to find this balance and will use their communication skills often and directly.
8. Clear on Instructions - Nothing hurts a company more than confused employees. A good leader will find the best way to handle any project, will organize it and present it to his fellow workers or customers so they can act on it. He'll be focused on the project at hand and won't run off topic or think allowed.
9. Aggressive at Evolutionizing - Good leaders are always aware of the customer. They know that a day will come that their product or service won't be in as big of demand as it may be now. He doesn't waste time trying to think of new products to pull them back in. Instead he changes as the customer changes, not ahead of the customer. He'll work to do this by communicating with the customer, seeing if these changes are worth making, and taking action to make the necessary ones.
10. Knows How to Laugh - Even though running a business is very serious, effective leaders can find the balance between the serious side and the fun of it. A fun leader is someone that people can respect, if they don't take it too far. Each of these characteristics is a balance, one that can't be taken too far, but must be taken far enough. But if you know your own strengths and weaknesses, you can find a way to achieve each of these traits and find true success.
Steve Wilheir is a leadership consultant, executive coach, and the founder of Leadership-Development.us, a site focused on developing leaders of tomorrow and shaping our future leaders. Visit his site to learn how to truly define leadership and understand characteristics of an effective leader.
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