4 Powerful Leadership Traits
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<4 Powerful Leadership Traits>
With time, businesses are becoming more and more complex. Organisations need to have leaders who can think strategically to continue to thrive in this competitive business environment. The results from a study concluded that 58% of organizations top priority is closing leadership skill gaps and improving upon these traits. Leadership traits isn’t something people are born with as these traits can be learned, adopted, and strengthened with time and practice. In this article you’ll learn about the 4 powerful leadership traits:
- Effective communicator
- Visionary
- Honesty and Integrity
- Empathy
Effective communicator
One of the most powerful trait of any leader is the ability to communicate effectively. Effective communicators are able to clearly explain to their employees of what is required of them, everything from organizational goals to specific tasks. If the employees aren’t aware of their expectations, they’ll often fall short. This will affect the performance of the organisation. You need to be able to communicate on all levels: one on one, to the department and to the entire staff, as well as via phone, email and social media. Communication is built on a steady flow of verbal and nonverbal exchanges of ideas and information. Hence a leader is someone who should be approachable and involve people from all levels in the organisation.
Visionary
As businesses have become more complex, having the ability to look into company’s future and having a vision to make clear concrete goals that will benefit their organization is a powerful leadership quality. Leaders are confident and optimistic, and inspire enthusiasm in those around them. Being a visionary is about managing change while striking a balance between stability and growth. It also means understanding that continuous change is occurring all around you, so what worked in the past may not always work now. Leadership requires the ability to adaptable and agile while implementing new strategies and allowing the business to evolve over time.
Honesty and Integrity
The 34th President of United States, Dwight.D.Eisenhower once quoted, “The supreme quality of leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.” Honesty and integrity are two traits which often go under looked. But these help build a strong functioning leadership. Leaders succeed because they have certain core beliefs which they stand by. Whether it’s giving proper credit for accomplishments, acknowledging mistakes, or putting safety and quality first, great leaders exhibit integrity at all times.
Empathy
A true leader is more empathetic open-minded to understand the followers’ motivations, hopes, dreams, and problems so that they can forge a deep personal connection with them. Understanding where people are coming from helps facilitate a more human environment which motivates the employees to be more productive. For example, if an employee is consistently missing the deadline of the tasks , good leaders won’t impute blame on them right away and even better leaders will solve the why questions. Why has their productivity declined? Maybe they’re dealing with a personal struggle at home, health issues etc. The most successful leaders are empathetic with their teams and deeply understand their motivations.
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