Improving Leadership Qualities: 11 Rules for Being a Great Leader

Many people believe that all it takes to be a good leader is to hold the dominant position in a group, company, or location. Is it enough?

This is a quiet simplified definition for what a leader should be, let alone what an advanced leader is. Actually, the measure of a great leader has much less to do with how you identify his/her role and more about their real impact on others.

Leaders make a huge difference in the overall experience people have within an organization,  no matter they work in the office or practice remote work.

You may run your own business or lead cross-functional teams in an office setting, but remember that the best leaders require a strong set of leadership qualities to help positively interact with employees and customers. This post will cover the main characteristics of leaders and will describe the most essential steps to succeed in this role.

Everyone can be a leader, following one of the famous leadership styles, yet only a select few can become an effective and successful leader.

The route to leadership is never an easy one; no matter you have worked your way up the corporate ladder or just started your own business. A great leader should be able to lead a team to success, regardless of the situation that they are facing. What are the qualities of a good leader?

Essential Leadership Qualities: What Makes a Good Leader?

Honesty

Honesty is one of the essential leadership qualities that define a good leader. It is rather important to be straightforward and honest when you are responsible for a team of people as well as provide full transparency in the workplace. Your team members are a reflection of yourself, so if you make ethical and honest behavior as a key value, your employees will follow.

Communication

Communication is the key to success. If there is no clear communication, your colleagues will have trouble to understand your goals and vision. Thanks to great communication, your employees will have a broad understanding of what they are working for.

Ability to delegate

Managers can’t do everything on their own. Successful leaders admit that delegation does more than simply passing the task to someone else. It is about believing and trusting that your team players are able to handle the task given to them. Employees want to feel trusted and appreciated, so by giving them a task, they would generally feel honored that they got selected and they would feel the importance.

Confidence

There may be days where the future of your product is cloudy. Even the young manager without experience should be able to maintain team morale and keep moving forward. By staying calm and confident, the team would not worry as they put their trust in you.

Creativity

A good leader should always think outside the box when any issues arise. You may gather the team and start a brainstorming session to build upon some of your ideas. When you get your team members involved in an idea, they often the importance of their existence in the company. They feel respected and wanted.

Commitment

Proving your commitment to your team and the entire company, you will not only earn the overall respect but will also instill that same hardworking drive among your staff. Showing commitment sets an example for others to follow and leads to respect and loyalty.

Positive attitude

It is also crucial to keep the office mood a fine balance between productivity and playfulness. If your team members are feeling happy and upbeat, they will probably agree to stay that extra hour to finish a report.

Inspiration

Being able to inspire your team members is good for focusing on the company’s goals and mission, but it is also essential for the team during their current projects. It is your direct responsibility to keep spirits up, and that begins with an appreciation for the hard work that people have put in.

Enthusiasm

People respond more openly to a person of passion and dedication. As a leader, you need to be able to be a source of inspiration and a good motivator. Do not be afraid to roll up their sleeves and get dirty.

Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand or feel what people are experiencing. Successful leaders praise in public and address problems in private.

Accountability

Managers and leaders should also take responsibility for everyone’s performance as well as their own. When things are going well, they praise. When challenges occur, they identify them quickly, seek solutions, and get the team back on track.

Focus and drive

Good leaders think rationally. They view a situation as a whole and are able to narrow down the cause as well as find the solution to the problem. They are the driving force in the team and also someone the team could look up to and encourage the rest to work together.

How to Be a Leader? 11 Practical Rules to Succeed

A manager should be both – a leader and a delegator, in order to survive. He/she should fulfill the following items to be successful.

1. Apply productivity matrix to define the important tasks

This means defining the working tasks for all team members. The leader should delegate the working portions wisely. This is an important issue to be implemented by the leader-delegator.

2. Identify your strengths and weaknesses

In doing so, the leader will need to learn to increase his strengths and decrease his weaknesses. This is not always easy to do, as it is a leadership skill that he’ll need to develop.

3. Perform better managing by productive thinking model

The project leader will need to improve his thinking by asking relevant questions.

4. Realize that things you can manage are activities and tasks

The project leader will need to know where the team spends its time. A time audit will help him to discover the inefficiencies and understand that doing a task – does not mean it’s important.

5. Improve team behavior

In today’s business environment, the only way to survive is to behave like a flock of fish that comes together to protect itself. Best leaders know this principle since there are too many outlanders wanting to waste your time. If you have a strong team, the better you will survive.

6. Get know the productivity of all team members

Every team member has a different productivity regime during the working day. You should know their cycles and to introduce important things on time, so the team members will create better solutions. Do not doubt trying any collaboration software focused on productivity and improving the team’s cooperation.

7. Do not accept others’ problems

Some team members will always try to tell you about their duties. Or they ask you frequently about different issues. You may lose a significant portion of time dealing with Your should always give back “the monkey” to its owner. Great leaders should possess this skill.

8. Create a delegation plan

In order to develop leadership skills, you can use a standard matrix to assign a task to team members. Put the ideas on the top, and common activities along the side. You should place two names in every box. The first will be the primary actor, and the other will be mentored by the primary. In this way, you will have a backup, and the team members will feel more comfortable. The matrix is simple, but it will help you.

9. “Don’t do” reminders

Write your name on a note, write the statement, and sign it. For example, “Tom – don’t do this yourself” – signed Tom. As you create reminders for the things to be done, you should also create reminders for the things you shouldn’t do.

10. Build a good team

The main duty of the leader is to build the teams and to perform the delegation negotiation cycle. The leader will always commit to releasing himself of unimportant items, which are important for other people to be doing.

11. Apply the “10 levels of delegation” to your team

The delegation principle will release the leader from trying to figure it out himself. By using a simple process, the leader will identify what needs to be done and assign the activity or task appropriately.

As you can see there are many everyday duties of the leader-delegator. Time management hasn’t changed much in recent years, but the leaders have skills to endure. You should first be a master of you, to create reasonable choices, and then to build skills needed to be a leader-delegator.

Now you know what it takes to be a good leader. The leadership qualities and practical rules described above will definitely help you to evolve and find a quicker way to career success.