Leadership: 9 Before 19
We all have witnessed vast volumes of new year wishes, resolutions and predictions for 2018. In fact, some of us might have forgotten or broken their new year commitments already! So from all practical aspects, 2018 is no longer a new year, but merely a current year.
As we set our eyes on the future goals of our individual lives, our careers, and our financial aspirations here are the nine essential leadership qualities that everyone should strive to develop before the new year of 2019! Everyone is a leader of one’s individual life and can positively influence their destiny with some inspirational thoughts and actions. These leadership attributes are quite simple to understand and memorize. However, like many essential success recipes in life, cultivating and internalizing these qualities might require significant efforts. Let’s hope we can all achieve such an exalted goal this year. Here are those nine essential leadership traits.
Authentic Leadership
In this day and age of social media crusades packed with cross-posting and shameless copying of self-promoting messages, authenticity has become the most desirable leadership attribute. One must learn the practice of being authentic to oneself and all of their stakeholders. Expertise in at least one subject matter is nonnegotiable.
Business Impact Leadership
We should always think from an ROI (Return on Investment) perspective to serve our stakeholders. Why would anyone care about collaborating with you? What kind of win-win proposals are you offering them? Let’s consider the most impactful business outcomes we can help deliver in 2019.
Contemplative Leadership
Leadership is all about a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset. Remain open to have a comparative approach to finding solutions for your customers. Instead of serving your self-interests, think from the other side and do what’s best for your target audience.
Disciplined Leadership
This one is a no-brainer in most of the self-help literature around the world. However, the word “disciplined” here is not in the context of scheduling or time management. It is about demonstrating principle-centric leadership inspired by a value-centric character that can create real wonders.
Experiential Leadership
The world is becoming more transactional and short-sighted when it comes to human relationships or corporate employment practices in recent years. Leadership stemming from a rich, diversified, personal experience coupled with an innovative and experimental mindset could be a real differentiator for the ultimate success.
Fault-tolerant Leadership
Although fault-tolerant is mostly a technical term, it is equally applicable to the realm of business and personal leadership. You don’t have to make all the mistakes yourself if you can learn from others’ experiences. Being fault-tolerant means, we can withstand more experimental errors in a limited timespan, by actively observing the environment around us. Life is short, let’s optimize it.
Genuine Leadership
Being on the top might require one to make tough, bold, rational decisions according to countless research studies. However, thinking from the heart and not exclusively from the head has its virtues beyond measurable transactional benefits. In meaningful relationships that provide the most happiness and satisfaction in life, we can win big by losing a little. Let’s strive to be a genuine, emotionally intelligent leader.
Helpful Leadership
Thinking about ourselves is not only considered narrow, but it also hurts us — physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Selfish thought processes bring more negativity and superiority complexes blocking our continuous growth. Only by helping others develop and by doing some selfless acts to contribute back to society, we can become cognizant of our limitations and blessings — helping us grow tremendously throughout our life.
Introspective Leadership
The master key to continuous improvement is introspection. It doesn’t necessarily mean looking only inward though. It is a process of constant calibration of yourself with your role model and involves both — looking outward as well as looking towards oneself.
As we embark upon the journey of rest of the year 2018 together, let’s commit to cultivating a few of these leadership attributes and make our lives better. Let’s diligently focus, genuinely reflect, and continuously fine-tune our heading towards a better tomorrow.
It’s never too late to do a course correction!
