How to be a GREAT Leader!
When it comes to being a good leader, it’s not as easy as you might think. A lot of factors go into a person with great leadership skills and everyone has the potential to be a leader. A good leader is honest and confident, passionate and driven and they want to push forward at all times. They also possess these key skills:
Delegation
This is truly a gateway skill. The inability to delegate to others can really stall many careers. Learning to accomplish things through others is an imperative part of effective leadership.
Someone who can delegate can:
- Assess employees’ strengths and weaknesses
- Assign work to match employees’ skills or challenge them
- Set expectations and prioritise
Communication
People have written entire books on effective leadership and communication skills. I, myself have coached many leaders on how to manage and hone their communication skills.
Someone who can communicate can:
- Listen intently
- Understand body language and nonverbal cues
- Manage vocal tone and inflection
- Speak clearly
Creativity
Creativity in a leadership role is about seeing people and situations through multiple lenses.
Someone who is creative can:
- Think critically
- Solve problems
- Brainstorm
- Make connectionsCoaching and Development
Developing Others
The fundamental role of a great leader is developing more leaders. When you ask people to describe the best leader they’ve ever worked for, you hear a lot about how that person believed in them and made them feel valued as a team member, gave them tough and candid feedback, put them in stretch assignments. They invested in their development and coached them to the next level.
A good leader can:
- Offer constructive feedback
- Listen Intently
- Give advice
- Challenge
Decision Making
On good days the choices you make as a leader are easy. Most of the time, though…they are going to be tough and often unpopular. Learning how to make decisions quickly and confidently is vital.
Someone who can make decisions is:
- Confident
- Informed
Teamwork
If you’re rowing the boat in the same direction, you’ll get there a lot faster. Leadership is about bringing out the best in a group and creating an environment where each individual team member can share and create something great, together.
Someone who is a team player is:
- Collaborative
- Group-Oriented
- Social
- Reliable
So…What Are the Qualities of A Great Leader
What are the traits of a good leader? The following are the most important.
Accountability
I teach leaders that their goal is to be respected, not liked. Accountability comes from creating clarity about what needs to be accomplished, by whom, and measuring progress against those goals. And when someone gets off track and misses their targets (and they will), giving fair but firm feedback. If you’re not taking care of underperforming team members, your high performers will start making a beeline for another opportunity.
Drive
No matter what your leadership style is, you’ve got to want to succeed in a challenging role. The desire to achieve something great and the ability to sustain that desire over a long period of time is a career maker. Status quo is not for leaders; the drive for excellence is.
Patience
Things will rarely go as planned and they will take twice as long as you expect. People will take longer to catch on to things than you anticipate. The ability to move things along when you can and understand when you can’t is a much-needed leadership talent. Patience, Grasshopper.
Authenticity
Good leadership is always about authenticity. My career really took off when I realised that if I showed up as me, people would respect me, even if I got things wrong. People can smell a fake and can see if you’re trying to be someone you’re not. Do you! It allows your team to do the same, and diverse and inclusive teams have more commitment, creativity and fun than those where people are pretending to be someone they’re not.
Adaptability
There are so many ups and downs that happen in the course of a year and it can be hard to keep up. Leading change is at its heart helping people to let go of what was, adapt and keep moving forward. Good leadership entails understanding why people resist change and the predictable stages of change you and your team will be better off for it.
Mindfulness
We’ve all worked with the person who flips out under pressure or can’t stop whining when their work-life balance is temporarily thrown off. That’s simply not a luxury that good leaders have. Emotions are contagious and great leaders are grace under fire. Leadership is a marathon, not a sprint, so managing the ongoing demands of leadership is a must. Good leaders are able to roll with the stress and use it as a positive force instead of a source for burnout.
Strategic Thinking
There’s lots of chatter about strategic planning, but that’s just an outcome driven by strategic thinking. The ability to ask the right questions, pay attention to market forces and see the bigger picture of the strategic moves that can be made is an invaluable skill to hone. I’ve had a lot of leaders tell me that one of their secret weapons is simply taking regular time to think strategically about their business.
Motivation and Inspiration
Whether you’re a natural at the front of the room or your strengths lie in being the person who quietly instills confidence, being able to keep your team enthusiastically pursuing long-term goals is a leadership must.
Humour
In any leadership role, you’re going to mess up. Along with your success, you’ll take some unfounded, harsh criticism. Leaders have to make tough calls in high-pressure situations. The power of laughter is truly phenomenal and the ability to let things roll off your back will sustain you through rough times. Never take yourself or your critics too seriously.
Ella McCrystal – Clinical Psychotherapist/Hypnotherapist & Business Owner
