9 Characteristics of the Most Effective Leaders I've had the Pleasure of Serving

I have the good fortune to be surrounded by an incredible group of leaders. My team amazes me week-in and week-out. They have taught me more lessons on leadership than I could begin to return. Each day I am offered the opportunity to learn from a diverse pool of dynamic leaders. Individuals capable of large-scale transformation, strategy, vision setting, execution, influence, and a multitude of HBR-worthy leadership skills.?

If leadership is on your mind, this article may have caught your eye because you are in a position where you want to develop. Or perhaps you have encountered a negative experience and want to become a more effective leader yourself. The following are some traits that I have learned by working with some of the best leaders in the insurance and financial industry.

The Ability to Listen

Being an effective leader means communicating effectively, and listening is a powerful tool for doing so. Listening is the best technique for understanding another person's perspective. It helps you learn about that person and build trust and respect.

Active listening is a skill you can learn. It involves repeating back what you've heard to show that you understand the other person's thoughts and feelings. Not only does listening actively help your colleague feel understood, but it prevents miscommunication from occurring due to false assumptions and words being taken out of context.

?If you think about it, active listening is an important skill for personal relationships, too --not just professional ones!

The Ability to Express Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand and respond to the feelings of others. A lack of empathy can cause problems in your relationships, both personal and professional. To express empathy as a leader, you must learn to put yourself in someone else's shoes and understand their viewpoint and what they're experiencing.

?Empathy allows you to build trust with others by connecting with them on an emotional level. When they know that you care about their needs and opinions, they'll be happier at work, which improves productivity and morale within the company as well as your workplace culture as a whole.

The Ability to Be Adaptable

?Adaptability is the ability to change or adjust to different conditions and easily adapt to new things. It's a skill you can learn through training, experience, and self-reflection. Adaptable people are better able to cope with change in the workplace and more likely to embrace new products, technologies, and processes that increase effectiveness.

?When you're adaptable:

• You recognize that changing situations require not only adjusting your approach but also adjusting your goals if necessary.
• You're open to learning new things and have a growth mindset (you believe you can learn anything).
• You take initiative rather than waiting for someone else to get something done.

The term adaptability is sometimes used interchangeably with flexibility; however, there are subtle differences between the two. Flexibility involves the ability of an object or person to bend without breaking--it's more physical in nature while adaptability is the ability to adapt to new situations. When you're adaptable, you're open to changing course and learning to do things in a better way. The ability to be adaptable can lead to new innovations and make you a stronger leader.?

Courage

Courage is being brave and standing up for what you believe in. It has many facets, but all of them are linked to having the strength to face your fears and do the right thing. Courage can also be something as simple as speaking up when you see something wrong or taking risks to achieve great things.

It's important to understand that courage isn't bravery. Bravery is more of a physical skill while courage is a mental one; it's not always loud or forceful, but rather quiet and focused. In fact, it's often courage that spurs action at the precise moment when your body wants you to take flight instead of fight. Think back on a time when you were afraid yet stood your ground anyway; this was an act of courage.

Courage can be active (like standing up for the team) or passive (like making sure everyone involved is safe). It can also involve taking big risks--and big risks don't have to mean life-or-death situations like deciding whether to jump from an airplane with no parachute strapped to your back. They can be smaller risks, too, but every good leader has some degree of courage and is willing to take calculated risks.

Collaboration and team-building skills

Collaboration is a multifaceted process that occurs when people work together toward a common goal. The main idea behind collaboration is that "two heads are better than one." By working together, people with different skillsets and backgrounds can create something greater than they could have on their own. On the other hand, teamwork involves working interdependently to achieve a collective purpose. To put it another way, teamwork requires uniting as one to achieve a common goal.

If you want to be an effective leader and grow your business, it's vital that you learn how to collaborate with others. When you collaborate with someone else in the workplace (and beyond), you're able to bring together two very different skill sets to solve problems and reach goals faster. In this way, collaboration allows for stronger creative problem solving and enhanced innovation by bringing together diverse perspectives and viewpoints from multiple departments within an organization. Effectively leveraging these combined skill sets can ultimately make any project easier for your team members as well as improve efficiency across the board for your small business.

Integrity

Integrity is another one of those leadership traits you may have heard about, but cannot be reinforced enough. While it's hard to come up with a precise definition for "integrity", we can say that it includes being honest and having strong moral principles, both characteristics of effective leaders. Integrity means doing the right thing even when no one is watching; if someone with integrity says they'll do something, you can count on them to follow through. One way to think about integrity is as an internal moral compass: if you can trust yourself to always do what's right, you'll be better equipped to deal with any situation that comes your way.

Intuition and decision-making skills

People with a strong ability to make decisions are generally able to do so without being impulsive. There is a difference between being decisive and being impulsive. A person who is aware of their personality type and knows how to make decisions can also apply this information in decision-making. The combination of intuition, logic, and emotions (or left-brain and right-brain thinking) is one way people differ when considering how they make decisions.

As for trust, having the ability to trust yourself or your gut feelings or instincts can be helpful. Although it may sound like an extreme statement, some may argue that trusting one's instincts could be the most important trait of all. Trusting your gut can help you think quickly on your feet in an emergency or simply help you know when it's time to move on from a project at work rather than procrastinating on it any longer because you feel it's not going anywhere anyway.

Optimism and forward-thinking

Being optimistic may seem like an intrinsic trait, but it can be learned. Optimists are more likely to seek help when needed, and that makes them more resilient in the face of challenges. They also tend to see failure as temporary, which allows them to try again and ultimately be more successful.

Being optimistic about the future also leads to better outcomes than pessimism. For example, leaders who think they will achieve their goals can defeat unexpected obstacles by quickly coming up with creative solutions. On the other hand, pessimistic leaders tend to give up too easily when faced with difficulty because they are less able to visualize a positive outcome.

And optimism is contagious! People around an optimistic leader tend to have higher levels of happiness and well-being than those around a negative leader. This type of positivity is critical for teams who need to generate creative ideas or solve problems together.

Stability

The most important trait of an effective leader is stability. Being a leader requires strength and confidence, but it also means being able to lead in uncertain times. When the going gets tough, you need to be able to keep your head to lead others through the chaos. Great leaders learn to stay calm under pressure, add levity at appropriate times, and help others keep perspective so they can make the right decision during difficult times.

The Bottom Line

The traits listed above might seem like a tall order, but it's important to remember that these characteristics are part of an ideal leader. They're not what every leader needs to be successful. They are, however, the hallmarks of a good leader who can lead effectively and well. Your own leadership style will work best when it is designed around your own personal strengths. To do that, you have to know first who you are and which traits you can build into your own style.

Best Regards,

-JJ

?

References: "Using Effective Listening to Improve Leadership in ...." 11 Jan. 2018, hsph.harvard.edu/ecpe/listening-to-improve-leadership/.

"10 Qualities of a Good Leader | SNHU." 14 Apr. 2022, snhu.edu/about-us/newsroom/business/qualities-of-a-good-leader.