When you think of leadership, names like Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk pop into the mind. They are the persons who led their companies to great heights through their sheer dint of hard work, determination, and creative vision.
DEFINITION
The best definition of leadership is the act of motivating other persons towards a specific goal. Persons with leadership quality showcase strong inter-personal skills and personality for leading others in their direction.
Whether running your own business or leading teams in an office, the best leaders need a strong set of leadership qualities in order to interact with clients, team members, and employees positively.
As per behavioural theories, leadership skills are not inborn and can be taught- persons can gain good skills of leadership through teaching and learning such skills over time.
SKILLS
Following are some of the essential skills of leadership:
COMMUNICATION
Communication skills are most critical if you are in a leadership role. One element of this is the skill of listening. Great leaders pay attention and listen to all: employees, clients, stakeholders- who they are leading. An effective leader knows how to put his message across. Leaders are great orators and also choose their words carefully. They permit others to express their emotions and thoughts.
INTEGRITY
It is a core quality for every leader. Without integrity, you cannot run a successful business. Honest leaders succeed when they stick to their words, live as per their core values, follow through with their commitments, and lead by example. Integrity serves as the cornerstone for all other qualities of leadership.
ACCOUNTABILITY
According to Arnold Glasgow,” A good leader takes little more than his share of the blame and little less than his share of credit”. Good and strong leaders are accountable for the results of their team, whether bad or good. They hold themselves and their employees accountable for the actions that create a sense of responsibility within them. They give credit where credit is due and take responsibility for blame whenever required.
EMPATHY
Empathy is understanding and is a major leadership quality. Truly great leaders are open-minded enough to understand the problems, dreams, hopes, and motivations of their followers in order to forge a deep personal connection with them. Emotional intelligence, which is capable of producing empathy, is a valuable skill for a leader.
SELF CONFIDENCE
True leaders are full of self-confidence. They are sure of their leadership skills and competencies. They have a sense of high self-esteem and self-assurance and truly believe that they can make a difference. This feeling gives them wings to fly high, accomplish goals and take risks.
VISION
A leader with vision can be driven and inspired by the heights to which their organization can rise and is far-sighted enough to envision the same. Visionary leaders work hard and stay updated with changes in their environment. According to Jack Welch, “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision and relentlessly drive it to completion.”
PROBLEM SOLVING AND DECISION MAKING
Another quality of a good leader is to handle and solve problems. They are able to both anticipate issues before they aggravate and offer creative solutions to solve them.
Good leaders also do not shirk the responsibility of making decisions. In fact, decisiveness is a very important quality for leaders; they need to make quick and effective decisions all the time.
In sum, these are some of the essential skills and qualities of a great leader.
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