In a recent blog, we discussed who we think are the world’s greatest leaders. What was it that about their personalities that enabled them to inspire nations and lead people, securing their position in history as ‘Great Leaders’?
A remarkable amount of time, effort, and money has been devoted to the study of leadership and thousands of books have been written on the subject. Despite all this research, there is little agreement about exactly what personality trait leadership is.
Not just born great
Still we all know effective leadership when we see it. Here at iThinkers HQ we don’t believe you are just born ‘great’. The attributes of great leaders are earned through hard work and practice. There are certain traits that great leaders share that we can all practice and adopt to become more effective to enable us to increase our Incredible Thinking.
Our top 8 tips
What qualities are those? Well, to be a highly effective leader, you must:
- Inspire action – try to paint a vision of the future that inspires people to do whatever it takes to get there
- Be optimistic – we all want to be with people who lift us up into the clouds instead of dragging us down into the mud
- Have integrity – be honest, fair, candid and forthright, and treat everyone in the same way that you yourself would want to be treated
- Be supportive – encourage people to take risks, to tell the truth and to speak up
- Have confidence – highly effective leaders know deep down inside that they and their team can accomplish anything they set their minds to
- Communicate – you need to speak and inform people but it’s more important to really listen
- Be decisive – highly effective leaders aren’t afraid to be decisive and to make tough calls quickly when circumstances require it
- Challenge – when trying to lead and motivate others to change, it’s crucial to remember if a situation doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you