In history, several leadership qualities have been observed. Some had been adopted by bad leaders while others had been displayed by good leaders. In either case, the characteristics of those responsible were correlated with their ability to achieve their goals. Just as importantly, those same traits determined how much their followers looked up to them or how little. Fortunately, you can put history to your side and use other people’s learnings to develop admirable strengths in leadership. Good leaders have seven specific qualities that stand out as contributing to their success. The good news is that through practice and repetition, each of those leadership qualities, behaviors, and traits can be taught.
The best qualities of good leaders are:
- Vision
- Courage
- Integrity
- Humility
- Strategic planning
- Focus
- Cooperation
Who Makes A Great Leader
Great leaders find the balance between foresight, performance, and character of the business. They have vision, courage, integrity, humility, and focus, together with their team’s ability to strategically plan and catalyze cooperation.
7 Leadership Qualities Of Great Leaders
Here are the seven qualities of great leaders and manager:
1. Vision
“Good business leaders build a vision, express the vision, embody the vision with passion, and drive it to completion without yielding.” – Jack Welch
Great leaders have a vision. They’re able to see the future. We have a straightforward, exciting vision of where they’re going and what they’re trying to achieve, and are outstanding at strategic planning. That consistency separates them from managers. Having a clear vision transforms the individual into a particular type of person. This vision quality transforms a “transactional manager” into a “transformation leader.” While the job is done by a manager, great leaders tap into their employees ‘ emotions.
2. Courage
“Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for, upon it, all others depend. ” –Winston Churchill
One of the strong leader’s most important qualities is bravery. Having the quality of courage means you’re willing to take risks with no assurance of success in achieving your goals. Because there is no certainty about life or business, any commitment you make and any action you take involves some kind of risk. Among the seven qualities of leadership, courage is the outward trait that is most recognizable.
3. Integrity
“With integrity, you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide. With integrity, you will do the right thing, so you will have no guilt.” Zig Zig Ziglar
The first value that all the collected executives agree on for their company is integrity in every strategic planning session that I have conducted for large and small corporations. We all agree on the value of total honesty, both internally and externally, in everything they do. Truthfulness is the core of Integrity. Integrity demands that you always tell the truth in every situation, to all people. Truthfulness is the founding quality of confidence that is important for any company to succeed.
4. Humility
Modesty’s getting results. Larry Bossidy, Honeywell’s former CEO and author of the book Execution explained why leadership qualities, such as modesty, make you a more effective leader:
“The more you can contain your ego, the more realistic you are about your problems. You learn how to listen, and admit that you don’t know all the answers. You exhibit the attitude that you can learn from anyone at any time. Your pride doesn’t get in the way of gathering the information you need to achieve the best results. It doesn’t keep you from sharing the credit that needs to be shared. Humility allows you to acknowledge your mistakes.” Larry Bossidy
Those who are solid and aggressive but also humble are great leaders. Humility doesn’t mean you’re weak or insecure about yourself. It means you have the confidence and self-awareness to recognize other people’s worth without feeling threatened. This is one of the rarer attributes of good leaders or traits because it requires one’s ego to be contained. This means you’re willing to acknowledge that you might be incorrect, that you may not have all the answers. And it means you give credit where credit is due which a lot of people are failing to do.
5. Strategic Planning
“Strategy is not the consequence of planning, but the opposite: it’s the starting point.” Henry Mintzberg
Great leaders at strategic planning are outstanding. It’s another of the more important characteristics of leadership. You have the ability to look ahead, to predict where the business and the markets are heading with some accuracy.
Leaders should predict patterns well ahead of their rivals. They continually ask, “Where’s the market going on based on what’s happening today? Where would it be in three months, six months, a year, and two years?” By careful strategic planning, they do this. Only the leaders and companies that can reliably predict potential markets will possibly survive because of the rising competition. Just foresighted leaders will benefit from the “first-mover advantage.”
6. Focus
“Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them. They stay focused on their past successes rather than their past failures, and on the next action steps they need to take to get them closer to the fulfillment of their goals rather than all the other distractions that life presents to them.” – Jack Canfield
Leaders always focus on the company’s needs and the situation. Leaders concentrate on performance, what has to be done by themselves, others, and the business. Great leaders are concentrating on strengths, in themselves and in others.
We concentrate on the organization’s assets, the things the company does best to please challenging clients in a competitive marketplace. Your ability as a leader to call the shots and ensure everyone is concentrated and focused on the most effective use of their resources is important for the company’s excellent performance.
7. Cooperation
If your imagination leads you to understand how quickly people grant your requests when those requests appeal to their self-interest, you can have practically anything you go after.” Napoleon Hill
Your ability to get everyone to cooperate and come together is key to your success. Leadership is the ability to get people who want to work for you.
The 80/20 rule applies here:
Your twenty percent contribute 80 percent of your results. Your ability to select these people and then work well with them on a daily basis is essential for the organization to function smoothly. Gain the support of others by making every single day a commitment to get along well with every key person. When it comes to a job you always have a choice: You can do it yourself, or you can get someone else to do it for you. Which one would it be?
Effective leaders are good communicators as well
The ability to speak effectively and persuasively is another important trait which the best leaders strive to perfect. In fact, in their own businesses, many tend to practice public speaking until they are ready to branch out into professional paid speaking gigs. While speaking out in front of crowds is a top fear for most of us, conquering this fear is what makes a good leader a great leader. If you’re able to surmount your fear of speaking and start leading more efficiently, just take the first step and the rest will become history.
Outstanding leaders lead by Example
For the most part, leaders are thinking about good leadership qualities and how to apply them daily. They also know that to truly win the will of their followers they must lead by example. The big attribute of good and great leaders is their willingness to stick to this idea.
Remember: The most important contribution you will make to your business is to be a visionary, take responsibility for the results, and aspire to go forward.
