Must Have qualities for a good leader

This is a part 1 of two-part series on Leadership Skills.

 The next part will focus on ‘How to improve your leadership skills?’ What is the common and important trait between Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln that makes them a great leader? 

Their empathetic attributes or their patience? Perhaps their listening skills? Of course all these. But if we ask you the most important trait, it would be to their ability to lead a team. Yes, having leadership skills not only helps in being a good manager but can help you in all aspects of your career. One of the many soft skills that employers value are leadership skills often incorporate with several different personality traits and communication abilities that are useful for anyone. Now first let’s get to the basics: 

  What are the leadership skills? Leadership skills are skills one uses when organizing other people to reach a shared goal. Whether you are in a management position or leading a project, leadership skills require you to motivate others to complete a series of tasks, often according to a schedule. Leadership is not just one skill but rather a combination of several different skills working together. Some examples of skills that make a strong leader include: Patience, Empathy, Active listening, Reliability, Dependability, Creativity, Positivity, Timely communication, Risk-taking, Ability to teach and mentor among others. 

Why are leadership skills important? Effective leaders are essential to any organization. They can help build strong teams within a business and ensure projects, initiatives or other work functions are performed successfully. Because the skills of a leader involve multiple interpersonal and communication skills, anyone can exercise and hone their leadership abilities. Many people have seen the results of both effective and ineffective leaders on the job. Good leaders increase employee engagement, support a positive environment and help remove obstacles for their team. Good leadership is also contagious, inspiring colleagues to apply positive leadership traits in their own work. 

 Let’s talk about some of the must-have leadership skills that may prove valuable to your career.

1. Decisiveness: Effective leaders are those who can make decisions quickly with the information they have. Effective decision-making comes with time and experience. As you become more familiar with your specific industry, you will be able to make decisions faster, even when you don’t have all of the necessary information. Decisiveness is seen as a valuable leadership skill because it can help move projects along faster and improve efficiency. 

2. Integrity: Integrity is often seen as just truthfulness or honesty but in many cases, it also means having and standing by a set of strong values. Integrity in the workplace often means being able to make ethical choices and helping the company maintain a positive image. All businesses seek to hire workers who have a strong sense of integrity.

3. Relationship building or team building: Leadership requires the ability to build and maintain a strong and collaborative team of individuals working toward the same goal. Team building requires other leadership strengths, like effective communication skills and conflict resolution. 

 4. Problem-solving: If you are a leader who is in a management position or leading a project, one of the must-have skills is having the ability to solve problems. Good leaders are skilled at problem-solving issues that arise on the job. Effective problem solving often requires staying calm and identifying a step-by-step solution. Problem-solving skills can help leaders make quick decisions, resolve obstacles with their team and external teams alike, and ensure projects are completed on time. 

5. Dependability: While working as a team, dependability is a non-compromising factor. Being a dependable leader means that people can trust and rely on you. A dependable person follows through on plans and keeps promises. The strong relationships built by a dependable leader create a resilient team that is able to work through difficulties that may arise. 

6. Ability to teach and mentor: Another important skill that differentiates leadership from many other competencies is the ability to teach and mentor. Effectively teaching colleagues or direct reports on how to grow in their careers help organizations scale. Often, this skill requires that leaders think less about themselves and more about how to make their team as a whole successful. So here you are top traits that are important to be a good leader. Our next part series will talk about how to improve those leadership skills. Till then... Stay tuned.