Leadership Qualities
Leadership Qualities
All organisations need leaders.
Leaders are able to inspire others to cooperate together, to give their best performance, in order to achieve a valuable goal or objective. Obviously, successful leaders are people who other people will willingly follow. A leader with no followers is a sad sight to behold.
But teams of people do not follow, just anyone. Teams of people will only follow those individuals who have developed their leadership qualities.
Not everyone has leadership qualities. Meaning, not everyone displays those personality traits that the people want to see, in their leaders.
Question:
What are the traits that people want to see in their leaders? What are the leadership traits and qualities?
Second question:
Do you possess these traits? Do you have the leadership qualities? If you don't, and if you would be a better leader, it is up to you to reconfigure your habits of thought, speech and action, so that they are in harmony with the requirements of leadership.
Let us identify the leadership qualities and ask ourselves if we demonstrate these qualities in our daily lives. Since you become what you habitually think, do and say; and since you can, with effort, control and alter and improve any aspect of what you think, do and say; then you can make yourself a better leader, by harmonising your actions, with the following list of qualities.
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1. Are you mentally in focus, or are you mentally drifting
Non leaders allow their minds to drift.
Leaders think.
Successful Leaders are thinking all the time about four things: The goal. The plan of action that will achieve the goal. Who could they get to do the work? And how can they motivate other people to do the work?
Each one of those questions requires a high degree of thought. That is why leaders think a lot.
Non leaders don't think about these things. Non leaders think about other things: What's for dinner. What is the cricket score? When is next tea break?
If you want to be a leader, then write down these four questions, every day, and think about the answers. Write out the answers and make the answers your mission plan.
- What is the goal?
- What is the best plan of action that will achieve the goal?
- Who could I get to do the work?
- And could I best motivate these other people to do the work?
Leaders have detailed thought files on the answers to these questions, and non-leaders don't.
2. Leaders think about their language. Non leaders don't
Leaders are leaders because they communicate differently. They use the language of leadership.
The language of leadership is not normal language. The language of leadership:
- Presupposes that final victory is inevitable.
- Dramatizes the goal to make it sound nobler than it really is.
- Minimises the importance of the inevitable difficulties and setbacks, so that people are not discouraged by the many difficulties and setbacks they suffer.
- Leaders never complain, bitch, moan or winge.
On the other hand: Non leaders are careless about the way they speak. Non leaders claim that there is no hope for the future: "We're doomed!".
Non leaders make a temporary setback, sound like a final defeat. And non-leaders bitch, moan and winge, incessantly.
Question:
Do you speak more like a leader; or a non-leader?
3. Leaders are always conscious of their conduct in public
Leaders manage the way they come across. They call it, "Impression management".
Impression management means that leaders know that people judge everything:
- People judge you if you swear too much
- People judge you if you are often late for meetings
- People judge you on your handshake
- People judge you on the way you speak to subordinates
- People judge you on your levels of honesty and politeness
This is why you will never see David Cameron, or Barack Obama, drunk, swearing, miserable, looking defeated, or angry.
But you did see Gordon Brown looking miserable, looking angry, looking defeated and you heard him bad mouthing people: All of which led to his downfall.
The idea you need to bear in mind is, "EVERYTHING COUNTS".
Leaders know that people do judge books by their cover.
And it is not true that you should "judge not."
Instead, judge and be prepared to be judged.
Leaders are serious about "Who they are" and "What they are becoming".
Leaders are equally serious about "What they appear to be"; Impression management.
If you would be a better leader, then you need to be serious about the following things:
- What is the goal?
- What is the best plan of action that will achieve the goal?
- Who could you get, to do the work?
- And how can you best motivate other people, to do the work?
- How do you talk?
- Do you talk optimistically and confidently about the future, or not?
- Do you talk pessimistically about the future, and call it, "being realistic".
- How do you come across to the others in the team?
- What impression do your daily habits of thought, speech and action, your "code of conduct", leave in the minds of others?
- Or have you never given impression management any serious thought?
If you would be a better leader, then give all these things your careful consideration.
If you are serious about wanting to improve your leadership skills, please attend our two day leadership programme.
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Definition: leadership qualities
In business, leadership qualities are the set of personal traits that mark out a true leader: keeping clear goals in mind with a sound plan, speaking in hopeful solution-based words, acting as a steady role model in public, and moving others to give their best. Lose any one trait and the term no longer applies.
Show CG4D Definition
- keeps clear goals in mind and plans actions
- speaks in hopeful, solution-based words
- acts as a steady role model in public conduct
- moves others to join in and give their best
Article Summary
Leaders are made, not born; anyone can gain followers when they think in clear goals, speak with hope and act as a strong model in public, because these three simple habits – focused thought, positive words and planned conduct – turn everyday workers into leaders people choose to follow.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some questions that frequently get asked about this topic during our training sessions.
What are leadership qualities?
Why must a leader keep mental focus?
Which four daily questions help a leader stay on track?
How does leader language inspire a team?
What speech should leaders avoid?
What is impression management for leaders?
How can I start improving my leadership traits today?
Thought of something that's not been answered? Ask Us Today!
Did You Know: Key Statistics
LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report 2024 notes that 81% of learning-and-development leaders list “leadership and management” as their top skills priority for the year. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2024 shows that teams who rate their manager’s leadership as excellent record 23% higher profitability and 18% higher productivity than teams with poorly rated leaders.About the Author: Chris Farmer
Chris Farmer is the founder of the Corporate Coach Group and has many years' experience in training leaders and managers, in both the public and private sectors, to achieve their organisational goals, especially during tough economic times. He is also well aware of the disciplines and problems associated with running a business.
Over the years, Chris has designed and delivered thousands of training programmes and has coached and motivated many management teams, groups and individuals. His training programmes are both structured and clear, designed to help delegates organise their thinking and, wherever necessary, to improve their techniques and skills.
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