Some people seem to be born to play a leadership role, whereas others crumble under the weight of that responsibility. To select the former, you need to know the best qualities shown in great leaders.
Your organisation is divvied up into several departments and sections to help you manage it better. All these sections need to have leaders pulling the teams in the same direction to achieve the desired goal.
Starting from the top (read you) all the down to the bottom rungs, you need effective managers that help your employees fulfill their specific roles in achieving a bigger target.
Choosing the ideal leader can be a bit of a pickle if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Some candidates harbor some of the best characteristics that put them in a favorable position to be great leaders.
Your job is to ascertain whether they have the right combination of leadership qualities to take on a management role. In this article, we will show you the most admirable qualities you should look for when choosing the best leaders for your teams.
What are the desirable qualities shown in great leaders should you look out for?
For an organisation to progress and attain tangible success, it needs to have competent and effective individuals in leadership roles.
With top-notch leadership qualities, they foster cohesion within the workforce. This translates to increased productivity in the individual sections and divisions and overall success for the organisation.
Here are the admirable qualities that make for a great leader.
A great leader should have equally excellent communication skills
Leading and managing employees requires one to communicate with them effectively. Team members take their cue from the team leader. Therefore, a great leader needs to be able to pass on instructions as clearly as possible.
You have to keep in mind that communication is a two-way interaction. It can’t be a one-way highway of commands. Not only should the leader clearly pass on instructions to the team, but they should also listen attentively. This applies to both verbal and written communication.
As a leader, you should touch base with your charges as regularly as possible. This helps you to keep abreast of progress and offer any appreciation or corrective action.
Excellent communication skills also entail using non-threatening body language. In the same breath, a great leader should have the ability to pick up on team members’ body cues. This helps them steer the conversation appropriately because they are able to hear what is going unsaid.
A great leader is capable of motivating others
One of the goals of a leader is to increase the productivity of their team. However, the majority of company heads do little else than motivate those who serve under them. They know that they couldn’t get the job done if they were off working on the problem themselves.
What they do is bring everyone together and get them to pull together in the same direction. However, it can be hard to get a lot of people to cooperate.
Therefore, one of the qualities shown in great leaders is the ability to motivate the individuals and the overall team to come together to achieve a specific goal. To do this, an effective leader needs to know what drives the team members.
Some members believe in the company’s vision, whereas others are there for the money. A great leader uses this to their advantage to motivate each and every one of their team members in a personalised manner for maximum effect.
Offer perks or bonuses to those good performers. This motivates everyone and more so those that are in the job for the material gains. Other employees are encouraged when their hard work is acknowledged and singled out.
Awards like ‘employee of the month’ go a long way in motivating some employees to hit their targets and goals in as short a time as possible.
A great leader is honest and humble
Outstanding leadership results in your employees looking up to you, confident in your ability to help them achieve their goals. To earn their trust, you need to embody honesty, humility and integrity.
When you have a lapse in judgment, make a wrong call or something goes wrong on your watch, you need to own up to it. This ability to be honest and show integrity shows that you have strong moral fiber.
Employees appreciate a leader with these qualities, making them trust you. When they trust you, they are ready to follow your lead, improving the team’s productivity.
A great leader should be able to organise and manage effectively
A small team or a large company needs to have a plan to follow. This plan shows everyone what they are supposed to do and the timeframe for completing the specific tasks.
Exceptional leadership entails leveraging the employees’ best qualities to achieve the organisation’s desired goals on time. An effective leader will organise the tasks, doling them out to team members depending on their capabilities.
Additionally, a great leader is consistently able to prioritise the different tasks that require their attention so that there is a coherent, effective workflow in the organisation at all times. The ability to decide what should come first and what can be attended to later is a sign of a great manager.
Managing also entails keeping track of the progress, ensuring that team members are applying their skills effectively and using their time efficiently.
In Summary
It might take some doing and interviewing to find a candidate that ticks all the boxes of what your organisation needs in its leadership roles. However, going through the process is worth it. A great leader will bring plenty of positives into your organisation and can easily turn out to be the key deciding factor in whether or not it succeeds.
If you’re reading this to find if you have the qualities shown in great leaders, you can read about the most important leadership skills everyone should have.
