Must have Leadership Qualifications

Are you the kind of leader who can inspire his troops to follow him through hell? Or the kind of leader that couldn’t get his people to follow him across the street to a free buffet? I have had both in my life and believe me the former is always better then the latter. Unfortunately, I have had more of the latter. I one had a leader who was famous for saying, “we’re not worse than anyone else!” Needles to say that leader and the company went down in flames shortly after he said that.

But think about this for a minute. Take some time to think about the leaders you’ve had in your career. Think about how the good ones inspired you to be much better than you ever though you were; to do things that you never imagined you could do. What made those leaders great. What made your group want to come together as a team and do things that none of you could have done as individuals. Think back to those times and how you felt. It was fun wasn’t’ it. It almost seemed like you weren’t even working even though you were working harder than you’d ever worked before. Right?

Well just to try to capture lightning in a bottle let’s talk about what it takes to be a great leader. Let’s list what it takes to be a great leader:

A great leader must be:

• A good person. This is the most important quality in a good leader. She must be honest, trustworthy, ethical, and moral. There are no two ways about this. If a person does not have these qualities nothing else will work.
• Visionary: A great leader must be able to see the future better then anyone else in the company. He must be able to completely understand not only the future but his company’s role in that future as well.
• Flexible: he must be able to adapt to whatever situation comes up and then successfully steer his company through that situation.
• Courageous: That great leader must be able to make those tough decisions. Let someone go when it is time or keep someone who is unpopular with the rest of the team if he sees that person’s importance. A true leader will as we said earlier be able to lead his troops through hell without flinching.
• Customer focused: She must be the company’s number one customer advocate. A great leader never speaks poorly of a customer not matter how aggravating that customer is. He is always at the forefront of customer advocacy explaining to the rest of the team that without customers there is not business. And then constantly reminding them of that fact.
• A great example: She must lead by example. Always planning to get caught doing the right thing, whether it is picking up a piece of paper in the parking lot of treating everyone on the company with proper respect no matter what their position is.
• Curious: She has to always be curious about what is going in in her company as well as in the market, as well as with her customers. She has to always be asking questions always trying to learn more. Showing that she like everyone else around can always be learning, can always be looking for new information that will help her be a better leader and her company a better company.
• Ferocious: yes, he has to be ferocious when it comes to protecting his own, whether that he his company’s image in the market place or one of is team members, he has to always be looking out for the good of the company and his people and protecting them from any attacks towards them.

And finally, a great leader has to have compassion he must have compassion for his people. Always trying to understand them. To see things through their eyes so that he can create a better work quality of life for them. He also has to have the same compassion for everyone he works with including his customers and his vendors.

So, think about your own leaders, do they have these qualifications? Or if you yourself are a leader, do you have these qualifications? If not, then get to work because you will never be a great leader without them. It’s only common sense.