The palate of leadership attributes
Most of us have had a spectrum of leaders in our professional lives. I hope all of us have had the privilege of working for at least one truly great leader. I am certainly grateful for encountering a few in my professional career. But what defines a great leader? It's a relative question based on your own preferences and tendencies. However, I think we'd all agree, you definitely know when you've worked for one.
Now, before you read the list below, pull out a pen and pad of paper. Write down your favorite leadership characteristics from your best managers. It'll be interesting to see if the 10 attributes below match your highlighted qualities.
I've put together a top attributes list for qualifying great leadership traits. I look for these qualities in an organization's leadership when seeking a new opportunity, and also when hiring employees into my team. I want to work with a team that is collaborative, dynamic and looks out for each other.
Top 10 Leadership Attributes:
- Passionate - Inspires, generates enthusiasm, exudes confidence, and cares about employees and customers.
- Communicative - A communicative leader believes in 360 degree communication across the organization at all levels and all functions, and is adroit at listening.
- Coaches - Developing people, enabling potential, and leaving room for growth are qualities of great leaders. Leaders that are skillful at coaching are great in driving commitment and developing strength in unity.
- Ownership - Top leaders are not afraid to take ownership for mistakes, and in the process learn from what has occurred and provide new solutions. These leaders also give credit to their teams/organizations.
- Bias for action - Top leaders will always have a sense of urgency in all professional aspects. There are always too many things to accomplish and everything must be done with urgency. These leaders will prioritize and delegate objectives and tasks as necessary to achieve results.
- Adaptive - Top leaders utilize creativity and intuition to tackle any planned or unforeseen business challenge. In today's business environment a top leader can handle adversity no matter the challenge.
- Strategic - In addition to being adaptive, a great leader will be strategic and opportunistic with all pieces of the business.
- Analytical - I cannot imagine a strong leader that wouldn't have a relentless focus on business numbers and performance. Any great leader will know how the business is meeting expectations.
- Positive Attitude - All of the other attributes will make a great leader, but in order to achieve the top echelon of leadership a positive attitude is a must.
- Trust - Whether your company's number one focus is employees, customers or shareholders, trust at the leadership level drives collaboration and honesty.
I would love to hear how your list of attributes compares to the list I've developed. Which key areas are most critical to you? Are there additional attributes that aren't captured on this list?
- Damian
.....And remember, if it's important, do it now!
