8 Leadership Qualities

I received some encouraging words the other day from a colleague on my leadership skills. It is amazing what positive, sincere, and tactful feedback can do for an individual. He pointed me to this Forbes article, 8 Essential Qualities That Define Great Leadership. This article is to give my perspective on those leadership qualities.

I consider myself to be an ongoing student of leadership; constantly learning and applying the knowledge. In today’s business world, you have to be more than a manager passing out assignments and giving orders to be truly successful. You have to be a leader, and today, you can be a leader without having a managerial title.

Manager vs. Leader

Before we dive into what great qualities of a leader are, let’s answer a question. What is the difference between a manager and a leader?

• Manager [man-i-jer] noun
  • a person who has control or direction of an institution, business, etc., or of a part, division, or phase of it
  • a person who manages
• Leader [lee-der] noun
  • a person or thing that leads
  • a guiding or directing head

“You manage things. You lead people.” – Grace Murray Hopper

Managers:

• are work focused and the goal is to get something done. They allocate work accordingly.
• have subordinates that they manager through coercive and legitimate power. Some might not even have expert power.
• do things right.

Leaders:

• are people focused and know if you succeed the proper results will follow.
• have followers by inspiring. They don’t even need to have legitimate power, but they do have reward, expert, and referent power.
• do the right thing.

Leadership Qualities Defined

Based on the Forbes article, the eight (8) qualities of leadership are:

1. Sincere Enthusiasm
2. Integrity
3. Great Communication Skills
4. Loyalty
5. Decisiveness
6. Managerial Competence
7. Empowerment
8. Charisma

I am going to dive deeper into the qualities and the actual meanings behind them.

1) Sincere Enthusiasm

• Sincere [sin-seer] adjective
  • free of deceit, hypocrisy, or falseness; earnest.
    genuine; real.
  • pure; unmixed; unadulterated.
• Enthusiasm [en-thoo-zee-az-uh m] noun
  • absorbing or controlling possession of the mind by any interest or pursuit; lively interest.

Sincere Enthusiasm is real, pure, lively interest for their team(s), products, services, company, and goals. If a leader has this, it can’t help but be contagious down, up, and to the side of all individuals within that influential circle.

2) Integrity

• Integrity [in-teg-ri-tee] noun
  • adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.
• Moral [mawr-uh l] adjective
  • of, relating to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong; ethical.
  • founded on the fundamental principles of right conduct rather than on legalities, enactment, or custom.
• Ethic [eth-ik] noun
  • the body of moral principles or values governing or distinctive of a particular culture or group.
  • a complex of moral precepts held or rules of conduct followed by an individual.
• Honest [on-ist] adjective
  • honorable in principles, intentions, and actions; upright and fair.
  • showing uprightness and fairness.

Integrity is adhering to the principles of right and wrong based on the culture, being truthful, and fair. This can vary slightly based on the society’s culture, company culture, and/or faith, but no matter your background, I believe we can all agree that it is if you treat and speak to others as you want to be treated and spoken to you are on the right track.

3) Great Communication Skills

• Great [greyt] adjective
  • unusual or considerable in degree, power, intensity, etc.
• Communication [kuh-myoo-ni-key-shuh n] noun
  • the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs.
  • something imparted, interchanged, or transmitted.
    a document or message imparting news, views, information, etc.
• Skill [skil] noun
  • the ability, coming from one’s knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc., to do something well
  • competent excellence in performance; expertness; dexterity
  • special training in which a person has competence and experience

Having Great Communication Skills means that you have excellent competence and knowledge on how to exchange considerable and powerful information via oral, aural, written, and visual mediums to the point where all individuals understand.

4) Loyalty

• Loyalty [loi-uh l-tee] noun
  • the state or quality of being loyal; faithfulness to commitments or obligations.
  • faithful adherence to a sovereign, government, leader, cause, etc.

Loyalty is following through on your commitments and obligations to your team and to your leadership. This can look like going the extra mile for your team to ensure they are successful and standing up for your team when you need to. This is then reciprocated by the fact that your team, collectively, will go the extra mile for you and the company. Team member’s loyalty, or lack thereof, is more with the leader(s) than the company.

5) Decisiveness

• Decisiveness [de-ci-sive-ness] noun
• Decisive [dih-sahy-siv] adjective
  • having the power or quality of deciding; putting an end to controversy; crucial or most important
  • characterized by or displaying no or little hesitation; resolute; determined
  • indisputable; definite
  • unsurpassable; commanding

Being decisive means making up your mind on a course of action, being accountable for the outcome, and leading to the destination. Sometimes a leader needs to make the decision, without a consensus, and individuals just need to move. Other times, leaders need to sit down with their team (or peers), and receive input from everyone, weighing the pros and cons, and moving forward with the appropriate action. In the latter situation, this creates more buy-in, especially if the leader is willing to openly talk about everything and be able to utilize great communication skills to explain the decision. As a bonus, you are mentoring your team at the same time and giving them the ability to learn the ‘why’.

6) Managerial Leadership Competence

• Managerial [man-i-jeer-ee-uh l] adjective
  • pertaining to management or a manager
• Competence [kom-pi-tuh ns] noun
  • the quality of being competent; adequacy; possession of required skill, knowledge, qualification, or capacity
  • sufficiency; a sufficient quantity.
• Leadership [lee-der-ship] noun
  • the position or function of a leader, a person who guides or directs a group.
    ability to lead.
  • an act or instance of leading; guidance; direction.

Leadership Competence is possessing the necessary skills, knowledge, and attitude to lead and guide a diverse group towards a goal, successfully. The opposite of Leadership Competence would be the Peter Principle, an individual being promoted to their “level of incompetence.” Excelling at an individual contributor role and having the competence of a great subject matter expert, does not necessarily mean that individual will be a great leader. There are three choices here: 1) work to fill in the gaps, 2) knowing you won’t be able to fill in the gaps and step down (there is no shame for doing that and actually would earn a lot more respect than option 3), or 3) stay there and not be the leader that the team needs.

7) Empowerment

• Empowerment [em-pow-er-ment] noun
• Empower [em-pou-er] verb
  • to give power or authority to; authorize, especially by legal or official means.
  • to enable or permit.

Empowerment is a leader providing authority and knowledge to subordinates to make the right decision that is in the best interest of the company. Sometimes we just think about the authority side of the equation and not the knowledge side. If individuals have the power, but not the necessary knowledge, we are going to have a bad time. This wouldn’t be the individual’s fault either, this would be the leader’s. Using an analogy, as a parent, I hand over the key to my car to one of my kids, and they don’t have the knowledge (driver license) to drive, then they get in a wreck. Who’s fault is it? Alex, my son, or me, the father (leader)?

8) Charisma

• Charisma [kuh-riz-muh] noun
  • a spiritual power or personal quality that gives an individual influence or authority over large numbers of people.
  • the special virtue of an office, function, position, etc., that confers or is thought to confer on the person holding it an unusual ability for leadership, worthiness of veneration, or the like.

Charisma is that charm that makes you want to follow for no apparent reason and sometimes just can’t be explained. Well, you don’t have to be an undercover double-O agent in a well-fitting tux, drinking a shaken martini, while playing Baccarat to be charismatic. So, let’s explain it. Charisma is the presence of a sincere individual that is approachable and well-spoken with anyone and everyone. (This is also less dangerous and less risky than the former.)

Conclusion

I believe, that if you possess these 8 qualities, that you have the making to be a great leader. All of this can be learned and honed to be even better in leading to your full potential. These qualities in a leader will soon trickle down to the team and they will start emulating and learning to do the same.

1. Sincere Enthusiasm
2. Integrity
3. Great Communication Skills
4. Loyalty
5. Decisiveness
6. Managerial Competence
7. Empowerment
8. Charisma

So here is a question to the community:

“What is your take on these eight (8) leadership qualities? Agree or disagree?”

 

Thank you for your time,