Whether running your own successful business or leading a department within an office setting, the best leaders require a good set of professional qualities to positively interact and motivate their employees.
The great thing about being a leader is that the traits and skills are not ingrained and can be taught. In other words, they can be gained through teaching and learning over time which is why management training courses have become so popular over the past few years.
The most important traits that a leader must have is confidence, empathy, communication skills, influence, delegation, accountability, resilience, and humility, all of which are going to be discussed in this article.
Let’s get started.
It can be quite hard to speak up at work whether you want to raise a concern, provide some constructive feedback, or to communicate a new idea. That’s part of the reason why confidence is a crucial skill for an effective business leader to have. Rather than avoid problems and letting them get worse over time, confidence enables leaders to get things back and move in the right direction.
Empathy plays a critical part in being an effective leader and is correlated with job performance. If a leader shows more empathy towards their team, then they will feel more valued cared about and will perform far better in their individual roles regardless of their level within a company.
Effective communication and leadership are both intertwined. Business leaders must be able to communicate in different ways in order to coach and guide their team to succeed. This also includes being able to listen to people across different roles and social identities. The way a business leader communicates with their team directly influences how successful their business strategy too, which leads us to our next point.
For some people, the word “influence” makes them cringe just by the thought of it. But being able to influence people through emotional and logical appeals is a key trait of an inspiring business leader. But it’s important not to get influence and manipulation mixed up because they are both quite different, especially within the workplace. It requires trust and emotional intelligence, and when done right, empowers a team that sits under a business leader.
Delegation in the workplace is one of the core responsibilities of a leader, but it can be rather tricky. The goal of delegation isn’t just to free up time but to encourage teamwork, lead to better decision-making, and to help employees grow both professionally and personally. In order for a leader to delegate well, they must first build trust with their team, which shouldn’t be difficult if they possess the traits that we have covered so far.
A good leader will always take a little bit more of the blame than they do their share of the credit. In other words, they are accountable for their team’s results whether they are good or bad. This creates a sense of responsibility for everyone within a workplace because leaders and employees are responsible for their own actions.
The grit of a leader is not how they act and perform when things are good for business, but how they roll their sleeves up and persevere when things get difficult. Great leaders lead by example and encourage their team to do well no matter what the circumstances are.
When it comes to being a newly appointed leader, some people become a little obsessed with their new title and status. However, great leadership is all about problem-solving and lifting up a team rather than self-promotion. A leader will never achieve much if they are more concerned with themselves rather than the performance and wellbeing of their hard-working team.
Bringing It All Together
To have a successful career, business leaders should possess all of the traits that we have discussed during this article. Together they make up the backbone of leadership across all different career levels and industries. Without these traits, effective leadership just isn’t possible.
If you are an aspiring leader and don’t feel like these traits describe you, then don’t panic. Remember, a management training course is a way of improving your leadership capabilities.
Originally published at https://onlinenewsbuzz.com on December 3, 2020.
