Four essences of a great leader

Jackson Mwansa
Are You Out There
Published in
3 min readApr 13, 2022

Leadership is the ability of an individual or a group of individuals to influence and guide followers or other members of an organization. A good leader is able to bring out the best abilities in his or her team members and motivate them to work together to achieve a shared goal. A good leader is also organized and keeps the team on track and focused to avoid delays.

Project leader giving presentation to work group.
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Are you looking to be an effective leader with the four essences of a great leader? Let me jump into the four essences.

  1. Emotional intelligence

Now what does it mean when I say emotional intelligence? When it comes to emotional intelligence, we’re talking about you being self-aware of your own emotions and the impact and effect they have on others. Once you’ve mastered your own emotions, you’re also able to understand other people’s emotions. So leadership is all about dealing with people, and as you know, as opposed to objects, human beings are driven by emotions. I’m sure you know leaders who shout and abuse others because they get emotionally worked up, and it doesn’t leave them. It doesn’t make you respect them, and it won’t make you aspire to be like them. I know that we all get caught up in the moment once in a while, but if this becomes a daily thing, we can say that you’re not emotionally intelligent.

2. The ability to be empathetic

What do I mean by empathy? When it comes to readership, a lot of the time we’re managing people and we don’t know what they’re going through. So being a leader means dropping your biases, dropping your opinions, and keeping an open mind because that way you’ll be able to see where someone is coming from and be empathetic. A good example is here: you have a top-performing female employee and she goes on maternity leave. You may not understand if you’re not empathetic.

3. The ability to communicate

Young group of students milling about talking about a project.
Photo by Akson on Unsplash

If you want to be an effective leader, you have to be a good communicator. I don’t mean you have to talk like Obama. It does help if you have very good public speaking skills. But just having the confidence to face people, express yourself, and talk about what’s on your mind is really important. So I would highly recommend you take a public speaking class. Here at corporate staffing services, we offer one and I’ve seen it make a big difference. If at all you want to learn about how to handle public speaking, consider it by clicking here.

4. Good manners and respect for others.

Yes, being a leader means you are looked up to in society. People look up to you in the company and in your department. But that doesn’t mean you step on people. It certainly doesn’t mean you treat people the way you feel. I’m sure you’ve heard of cases, where people in leadership positions have lost their jobs and careers have been impacted because they did not respect others.

Show respect for others and they will show you respect also.

“Follow Me” lighted sign set between two flashing lights.
Photo by Free Walking Tour Salzburg on Unsplash

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Jackson Mwansa
Are You Out There

Hi, my name is Jackson I am a writer who like Reading. I Love Reading Books because I like to learn New things that's why I Love Writing as well.