Do you have what it takes to be a good leader?

Leadership traits

CAN LEADERSHIP BE TAUGHT?

SKILLS LEADERS NEED

1.  First, ‘be authentic’. Know who you really are. Hold true to yourself in the most difficult moments. There are situations that test your ability to stay true to your core values in the face of tremendous temptation to take the easy way out. Accept the disappointments in your past actively seek feedback from your team.
    
2.  Second, follow your commitment to authenticity with a determination to ‘be trustworthy’. Build a track record of honesty, fairness and integrity that creates a leadership equity within your circle. When it becomes necessary to make unreasonable demands on your team, this is the currency you need. People who are authentic and trustworthy are generally good and fair. They act like good friends. But these two virtues are insufficient to create committed followers. An important characteristic of leader is that they have not just friends or admirers but ‘followers’.
    
3.  Almost any version of success needs ‘committed action’ toward goals. And action requires teams of people assembled around leaders aligned with a shared vision. Become a ‘compelling’ leader by creating your committed followers that is different from one of believers. Leaders inspire followers who commit not only with their hearts but also with time and energy.
    
4.  Most organisations are propelled to success primarily by the quality of the people on the team. As David Ogilvy says, “Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.” High performers set a different standard. They raise the bar for everyone. So, hiring great people is the highest leverage activity that leaders undertake. They know payoff can be substantial for the investment they make on people.
    
5. Competence is a three-legged stool: leading people, leading strategy and leading execution. ‘Leading strategy’ is equally important as the other two disciplines. To make a dream or a strategy come true, you must visualize it, but then you must make a plan – only then you can build it. Smart leaders do not initiate complex projects without a real plan and strategy.
    
6.  Next comes, ‘leading execution’. At the end of the day, leaders are held accountable. They get paid to produce the agreed-upon results. Execution is when race starts. From that moment onwards, preparation yields to the event itself and finally, winners and losers are determined. In most organisations, every day is a racing day. A day may start from the staging of the next move to the ongoing recruiting of the right talent to the hurried training that take place on the sidelines based on the new moves by the competition.
    
7.  If you accept a role of a leader, you implicitly agree to ‘be a communicator’ for the organisation. It is not a responsibility to you can opt out. The ability of a leader to communicate effectively is perhaps the highest leverage activity in his set of responsibilities. When you do it well, things work, smoothly and effectively.
    
8.  Your primary job as a leader is not to make most of the decisions that arise every day. You must lead the people in such a way that they will make decisions, or better decisions, than they would alone. But, of course, you need to make real-time decisions, in urgencies under pressure. Those are the ones that make your real career and set legacies.