We all have always wondered what makes a good leader. In this article, I’ve tried summarising and simplifying the top 10 traits of great leaders which I’ve learnt by studying them over the years.
Here are some of the best traits I’ve learned over the years while serving a group of people aka. Team, as a leader and also by observing high performing teams across different industries and also by studying some of the great leaders the world has ever known.
I’ve tried limiting them to 10 so that the readers don’t have to spend too much time reading this but also be able to relate them to their individual experiences where the actual learning happens. let’s get started…
1. Be transparent as much as you can with the team or the group you lead and let your team know what you stand for and what you value the most in an individual. This will send them signals on what matters to you the most and they’ll be more open in sharing what matters to them. Which would eventually lead to a great relationship.
2. Make everyone in the team feel that they belong and cared for. Make sure you hear out every team member consciously and intently and only then act. Which should be in the Customer’s, Team’s, Organisation’s best interest and this will happen only if you hear out everyone and their thoughts on the topic.
3. Celebrate even the smallest of their accomplishments. Something that you think as small, could be a big and celebration worthy event for another individual (due to their age or their experience)
4. Know everything that is happening in the team but do not react unless you think someone is really screwing things up or going off track for themselves or the organisation.
5. Be open for feedbacks and take it professionally. This is where many managers get it wrong, they ask for feedback but when they get any negative ones they really take it personally because of which team members are scared to tell you your negative traits.
6. Make sure your team is aware of the goals and reiterate it when ever required. Goals or Objectives are just like the sign posts on a highway. Which, if not maintained or reminded regularly, everyone will be lost.
7. Drive a culture of self reliance, develop your people to be leaders not followers. Do not let them depend on you or any other person for any decision they might have to take, unless it requires an official sign off from someone for specific reasons.
8. Delegate your work as much as you can. This will not only help them learn new things and keep them interested but also it will allow you to concentrate on more important or new tasks.
9. Stop calling out every mistake the team or a team members make. If you callout or punish them for every single mistake, they’ll probably not try new things and they won’t learn anything new. Rather, ask them what could have been done better and allow them to think on their feet. Which will make them more creative and innovative. Now tell me which leader wouldn’t love that?
10. Most Important trait – Be You! Now this is the most simple and obvious thing to say. However, many leaders forget this fact and end up acting like someone else or they just try to act like the team they’ve got. The fact is, if you don’t be you and instead act like you are the best, you won’t know what you lack and probably won’t be able to work on it and this will surely come back to you one day and haunt you.
So, these are some of the traits I’ve noticed over the years in great leaders. Please let me know in the comments section if I’ve missed anything or if you learnt something new from this article today.
Be Great!
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