8 Essential Qualities that Make Good Leaders

Each of us believe we have a good idea about what it means to be a good leader, but when it comes to defining the concept, the picture is not so clear. For some, leadership is motivation, for others, it equals results and it can also represent inspiration.

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” - John C Maxwell

Everybody defines leadership differently. Irrespective of how you define a leader, he or she can prove to be a difference maker between success and failure in your company.

Did you know that nearly one-third of employees don’t trust management? On average, after graduating from college, a millennial will change jobs four times before they are 32. The reason is that most of them don’t feel empowered and safe on their current jobs.

So, it’s clear that many leaders and companies are failing to foster a sense of trust, safety and loyalty in their employees. According to Simon Sinek, inside a company, it's the leader who sets the tone for the conditions inside the organization. When a leader makes the choice to put the safety and lives of the people and lives of the people inside the organization first, remarkable things happen.

Great leadership qualities can inspire teams and people to accomplish amazing things So, what leadership qualities separates a good leader from a bad one?

1. Vision

Leading means having a vision and sharing it with others. Only when you get to inspire others, it is possible to share a common goal towards which to direct the efforts and dedication of the entire team. What is your vision?

2. Integrity

Whether it’s giving proper credit for accomplishments, acknowledging mistakes, or putting safety and quality first, great leaders exhibit integrity at all times. They do what’s right, even if that isn’t the best thing for the current project or even the bottom line.

The 34th President of United States, Dwight.D.Eisenhower once said, “The supreme quality of leadership is unquestionably integrity. Honesty and integrity are two important ingredients which make a good leader. How can you expect your followers to be honest when you lack these qualities yourself?

3. Motivation & Enthusiasm

True enthusiasm for a business, its products, and its mission cannot be faked. Employees can recognize insincere cheerleading from a mile away. However, when leaders are sincerely enthusiastic and passionate, that’s contagious. For instance, someone who worked with Elon Musk on the early stages of his SpaceX project said that the true driver behind the success of the project was Musk’s enthusiasm for space travel.

A great leader knows how to motivate and be enthusiastic better than anyone else; it is one of their main functions as people managers. Through motivation, a leader channels their coworkers energy and professional potential in order to achieve objectives.

4. Great Communication Skills

Leaders must motivate, instruct and discipline the people they are in charge of. They can accomplish none of these things if they aren’t very skilled communicators. Not only that, poor communication can lead to poor outcomes.

The leader must be at the forefront to lead and guide their team throughout the whole process until the goal is reached. Until you clearly communicate your vision to your team and tell them the strategy to achieve the goal, it will be very difficult for you to get the results you want.

5. Delegation and Empowerment

Again, the leader must be at the forefront to lead and guide their team throughout the whole process until the goal is reached. But besides being that “torchbearer”, leaders also know when to step back and make their team take the initiative. In this way, the team gets the chance to develop, both personally and professionally. Pure management focuses on the tasks, real leadership focuses on the people.

A great leader recognizes you cannot do everything, right. It is important for a leader to focus on key responsibilities while leaving the rest to others. This means empowering your followers and delegating tasks to them, not micromanage them. Moreover, a good leader has faith in their ability to train and develop the employees under them. Because of this, they have the willingness to empower those they lead to act autonomously.

6. Decisiveness and Risk Taking

The leader is the one responsible for taking the risks that others are not willing to take. They are confident enough to make a decision, and if they make a mistake, the leader must have the courage to rectify, assume their guilt and take the right path, without blaming it on the team.

Further, bosses who aren’t decisive are often ineffective. Too much effort working on consensus building can have a negative effect. Rather than simply making a decision, many leaders allow debate to continue, and then create a piecemeal decision that satisfies no one.

Good leaders know how to get ahead of their time, they see opportunities where others can’t and know how to spread the enthusiasm for their vision to try to make it real.

7. Empathy

One of the basic qualities of any leader seeking success is precisely emotional intelligence, that ability – often innate – that makes leaders put themselves in the place of others, understand their concerns and solve problems. Leaders know the secrets of their businesses and therefore can empathize with customers and members of their teams: that empathy gets to inspire and establish links that will ultimately lead to success.

Unfortunately, some leaders follow a dictatorial style and neglect empathy altogether. Due to this, they fail to make a closer connection with their teams.

8. Creativity

 Good leaders are able to create an environment that will encourage all the members of their team to develop their skills and imagination, so that they can contribute to the common project and vision of the company. If you want to lead successfully, respect the creativity of others and learn from the people around you; their ideas will surely prove to be positive for you.

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” - Steve Jobs

In order to get ahead in today’s fast-paced world, a leader must be creative and innovative at the same time. Creative thinking and constant innovation is what makes you and your team stand out from the crowd. Think out of the box to come up with unique ideas and turn those ideas and goals into reality.

Every one of these qualities is absolutely essential to great leadership. Without them, leaders cannot live up to their full potential. As a result, their employees will never perform as well as they can either. Because of this, organizations must learn the best ways to identify and also to develop these necessary traits in existing and emerging leaders.