Are you a "Phenomenal" Leader?

Test yourself: How many of these "Top 10 Leadership Qualities" do you exhibit?

Ask yourself these two questions with respect to each of the 10 leadership skills listed below:

• Do you consider this skill to be one of your CORE leadership skills?
• More importantly, would your colleagues, direct and indirect reports say you EXHIBIT this leadership skill on a regular basis (i.e. be honest with yourself). 

Score you answers accordingly for each listed leadership skill:

• 1 point if you can answer yes to both questions.
• 0.5 points if you can answer yes to one of the two questions.
• 0 points if you are unable to answer yes to either question.

The highest possible score is 10 and the lowest possible score is 0. Leadership scores and ratings are explained at the end of article.

1. Conscious

Number one on the list of leadership qualities is Consciousness — and for good reason. The word ‘Consciousness’ is defined as “the state of being aware and awake of one’s surroundings”. The power of conscious awareness is to have an understanding of what you do and why you do it. To know that you, as a leader, are making a significant impact on those you lead, who in turn come together with you to operate as a unit to then make an even bigger impact on the rest of the world.

2. Clear

Anyone creating a leadership qualities list would be insane to forget this essential characteristic. In order to lead, you must communicate your desired outcomes with clarity. 

Be clear and speak to those you lead in a manner that everyone understands.

3. Confident

Confidence and Competence can’t live without one another.

Competence without Confidence puts you at risk of blocking your ability to galvanize others (and yourself) to execute around your ideas. 

An example of this, would be an intelligent person that never communicates their ideas because they lack the confidence/security to speak in public.

Confidence without Competence is the zone observed most prominently with political figures. We’ve all seen politicians deliver impeccable speeches with absolute confidence, only to witness their lack competence on the backend, as they fail to follow through on the promises and policies that got them into office in the first place.

4. Competent

Extraordinary leaders are extraordinarily competent at their craft. The first example that comes to mind is Bill Gates, founder and former chairman of Microsoft.

There a many people who have heard about the 10,000 hour rule made famous by Malcolm Gladwell in his phenomenal book “Outliers”. 

Unfortunately, too many people didn’t actually read the book, resulting in a misinformed perception of what the 10,000 hour rule actually entails. For example: In the book, Gladwell digs deep into the contributors of what made Bill Gates. What Gladwell uncovered were two primary factors that drove Gates’ success:

#1. Bill’s extraordinary competence within the software/computing field (obviously). #2. Bill’s unforeseen opportunities…

Did you know Gates had been coding since he was in middle school? He used to sneak out in the middle of the night to a university within WALKING DISTANCE to his home — that ALSO gave him full access to - quite literally – to the most cutting-edge computer technology of those times.

Gates also used to get spare parts from Bill Hewlett — of Hewlett-Packard. 

Bottom line? The example above is by no means an effort to take a single thing away from Gates, but rather, to illustrate that Competence requires:  

(1) the skillful acquisition of knowledge, in conjunction with, (2) a keen eye to recognize any opportunities that might allow an individual to put that knowledge to use.

5. Courageous

Courage is being scared, nervous and uncertain about what you’re about to do… and then DOING it anyway.

When one thinks of a “Courageous Leader”, the first person that often comes to mind might be Martin Luther King Jr. because he stood for the greater good and didn’t tolerate low-level systems, regardless of how scary it may have been to take action against those systems, he did it anyway. That’s courage!

6. Collaborative

Collaboration occurs when two or more people come together to work together collectively. Great leaders foster collaboration in the workplace by setting up conditions that make it conducive for their employees to work together.

One of the keys to an “engaged” workplace is one that thrives on collaboration. Where people help each other because they want to, not because they have to. And this is wonderful for employees and managers — but not for leaders. 

As a leader, it’s your job to make sure this happens in your organization, to foster an environment that’s conducive to collaboration… 

Your role as a leader however, isn’t as simple as just “being more collaborative”. For those that possess the character qualities of extraordinary leadership, always do a little more than what most people see on the list. Great leaders set a prerequisite for themselves and their peers to take Collaboration to the next level, by seeking to create synergy. We’ve all heard this word before. But for the sake of not falling prey to the Law of Familiarity, let’s remember how it’s defined: Synergy means to come together in hopes of creating something that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Collaboration means to work together. - Synergy means to collaborate until a Win-Win-Win is created for ALL parties involved (You—Your People—Your Customers).

7. Cheerful

To be cheerful means to look for positive solutions to things. To smile at others. To not allow things out of your control to take your emotions on a roller coaster ride. 

Never underestimate the “power of positive thinking”, but don’t depend on it either. 

If you’re overweight and all you do is look at yourself and yell “I’m thin! I’m thin! I’m thin!” — you’ll never get anywhere. You need to be saying that to yourself while you’re in the gym working your butt off.

8. Creative

Creativity and innovation are only useful when they’re acted upon. To quote Peter Drucker: 

“There is no lack of ideas in any organization I know. “Creativity” is not our problem. But few organizations ever get going on their own good ideas. Everybody is much too must on the tasks of yesterday.” 

Those you lead are responsible for creating. YOU are responsible for letting them do it.

9. Committed

To be committed is to stand your ground and do what you believe in, all the while possessing a deep understanding of the power of flexibility. 

Set goals, but don’t be rigid. 

Measure results, but don’t let them define you. Remain committed, but only to those things that matter most.

10. Contributive

Contribution is far more than a leadership quality, it’s a core human NEED.  

Below George Bernard Shaw offers and an excellent example of how one should choose to lead their life and their organizations: 

“This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I love. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no ‘brief candle’ to me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it over to future generations.” 

To really make a difference is to understand that it’s not about you. 

It’s not you that makes a difference — it’s the impact, the ideas, the changes that YOU ENABLE in OTHERS — that is what truly makes a difference.

Leadership Scores and Observations:

10 - You may have a narcissistic personality disorder.

8 or greater, but less than 10 - You may already be a phenomenal leader and you have the potential to rise to the CEO level if you so desire. You might even have the potential to run a Fortune 500 company if you're not already running one.

Less than 8 but greater than 6 - You are likely a solid leader and you have a leadership platform that will allow you to develop into a phenomenal leader.

Less than 6, but greater than 4 - You have leadership base from which to develop into an effective leader. You may want to seek out a mentor to help you fine tune your core leadership skills.

Less than 4 - Either you simply haven't been given an opportunity to exhibit your core leadership skills and / or you need to seek out a respected leader to mentor you to help you develop and hone your leadership skills to become a better leader.

Source: Some Information Gleaned from Dean Bokhari