Leadership: Who wouldn’t like to conquer it?

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Leadership is the one area that every person wants to excel at and use to make a difference. When you are an entrepreneur, running a small business, or leading a group of employees in another company, you need to be on top of your leadership game. Without having leadership abilities and skills, then you will not be able to effectively lead your team, your business, your family, or whatever else it may be.

There are a lot of different ways to grow your leadership abilities. You can start by practicing being a leader - volunteer for higher positions within an organization or lead an effort for a cause that you care about. Being a volunteer leader gives you the chance to practice and develop yourself. Then as you get more confident within a charity or organization, look for ways to become a project leader at work or other in other areas in your life. With every leadership role that you take, you will learn more, use more, and expand more. Another way to pick up some leadership characteristics or study more leaders is through books and publications on leadership. There are so many good books out there on leadership, that I wanted to touch on a some of them that I have read and think will help you to develop into the type of leader that you want to be.

One of the those great books is The Emerging Leader: Eight Lessons for Life in Leadership by David Lewis. David Lewis is a human resources and career development expert who has helped more than 10,000 people find a new job. He’s only 27 years old and has been on many TV networks including Fox, ABC, CBS and others.

If you are looking for a great book for future business leaders that is short (104 pages), quick to read, and high impact, then you need to check out The Emerging Leader!

Integrity - Leadership Qualities Series

The most important quality of leadership is integrity, understood as honesty, strength of character, and courage.

Without integrity there is no trust, the number one element in the leader-follower equation. Integrity leads to trust, and trust leads to respect, loyalty, and ultimately, action. It is trust coming from integrity that is needed for leading people form the boardroom, to the shop floor, to the battlefield. A model of integrity was George Washington, about whom it was written:

Endowed by nature with a sound judgment, and an accurate discriminating mind, he was guided by an unvarying sense of moral right, which would tolerate the employment only of those means that would bear the most rigid examination, by a fairness of intention which is neither sought nor required disguise, and by a purity of virtue which was not only untainted but unsuspected.

As a leader, ask, Do my people trust me? Do they know that I seek the truth and that I am true to my word? Do they see that I possess strength of character and courage of my convictions?

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“Integrity” concludes this series on leadership qualities. If you missed any of the previous posts, check out the introductory post for the series and you can find links to all the different posts! I hope you were all able to pull something from this series and think about the different qualities that leaders should strive to have and how you can try to reach them all yourselves!

Charisma - Leadership Qualities Series

Charisma is a special personal quality that generates others’ interest and causes them to follow.

Napoleon makes the point that great leaders are optimists and merchants of hope. Optimism, a sense of adventure, and commitment to a cause are traits found in charismatic leaders. These are qualities that unleash the potential of others and bring forth their energies. Charisma is difficult to define, but the result is admiration, enthusiasm, and the loyalty of followers. Charismatic leaders in history include Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, and Elizabeth I.

As a leader, ask yourself, Do I possess a positive outlook and commitment in my demeanor that transforms followers to new levels or performance as well as personal loyalty to me?

If you are just tuning into the Leadership Qualities Series, head over to the introductory post so you can catch up on the previous posts!

Vitality - Leadership Qualities Series

Even if the spirit is willing, strength and stamina are needed to fulfill the tasks of leadership.

Effective leaders are typically described as electric, vigorous, active, and full of life, no matter how old they are or if they are physically disabled. Consider Franklin Roosevelt, who had polio, and Helen Keller, who was blind. It is interesting to note that at one point in recent history, the American president Ronald Reagan, the Roman Catholic Pope John Paul II, and the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran were all over 70 years of age - and more vital than many people half their age. At all ages, leaders require tremendous energy and stamina to achieve success. The caring leader must have health and vigor to pursue his or her goals. Physical checkups and physical fitness are common-sense acts.

Leaders must ask, Am I fit for the tasks of leadership? Do I have sufficient energy? AM I doing everything I can to keep physically strong?

If you are just starting to read the Leadership Qualities Series, check out the first post about it and then read the other entries in the series.

Persistence - Leadership Qualities Series

The leader must have drive and determination to stick with difficult tasks until they are completed.

According to Niccolo Machiavelli, “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain as to success, than to take the leader in the introduction of a new order of things.” Former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir referred to the quality of persistence when she advised that things do not just occur in one’s life. She encouraged people to believe, be persistent, and struggle to overcome life’s obstacles. Leaders from Walt Disney to Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s, have shown the importance of persistence for business success, and military leaders from Ulysses Grant to George Patton have proved its importance on the battlefield. However, no better example exists to show the importance of fierce resolve as a leadership quality than that of Winston Churchill. Historians agree that his leader, with his bulldog will, was a determining element in the success of the Allied nations in defeating the Axis powers in World War II. In the face of impossible odds and seemingly certain defeat, Churchill rallied his people. Simply, he would not give in: he would not give up.

If you are the leader, ask, Do I have self-drive and unflagging persistence to overcome adversity even when others lose their strength and their will?

If you are just starting to read the Leadership Qualities Series, check out the first post about it and then read the other entries in the series.

Self Confidence - Leadership Qualities Series

OK I got a little behind in this one. Sorry!

Confidence in one’s ability gives the leader inner strength to overcome difficult tasks.

If leaders lack self-confidence, people may question their authority and may even disobey orders. Researchers at the Center for Creative Leadership have found that successful leaders remain calm and confident even during intense situations. By demonstrating grace under pressure, they inspire those around them to stay calm and act intelligently. According to football quarterback Roger Staubach, the key to self-confidence is how hard the leader works: “Confidence comes from hours, days, weeks, and years or preparation and dedication. When I’m in the last two minutes of a December playoff game, I’m drawing confidence from windsprints I did the previous month. It’s just a circle: work and confidence.”

A leader must ask, What is my self-confidence level? Do I show confidence in my actions? Have I done the homework and preparation needed to build self-confidence?

If you are just starting to read the Leadership Qualities Series, check out the first post about it and then read the other entries in the series.

Concern for others - Leadership Qualities Series

At the heart of caring leadership is concern for others.

The leader must not look down on others or treat them as machines - replaceable and interchangeable. The leader must be sincerely and deeply concerned about the welfare of people. The character of caring stands in clear contrast to the character of bullying. The caring leader never tears down, belittles, or diminishes people. The leader must also possess humility and selflessness to the estent that, whenever possible, others’ interest are considered first. Concern for others requires patience and listening, and the result is trust, the bedrock of loyalty. Loyalty to followers generates loyalty to the leader; and when tasks become truly difficult, loyalty carries the day.

Leaders must question, Do I truly care about my employees as people, or do I view them more as tools to meet my goals? DO I ever demean people, or do I always lift them up? If I value my employees, do they know it?

Following concern for others, comes having self confidence as a leader, tomorrows entry will be on just that!

If you are just starting to read the Leadership Qualities Series, check out the first post about it and then read the other entries in the series.

Stability - Leadership Qualities Series

The leader must understand her or his own world and how it relates to the world of others.

One cannot solve the equation of others when preoccupied with the equation of self. Empathy for employees cannot be developed if the leader is emotionally involved with personal problems. Problems with alcohol, problems with money, and problems with relationshiops are fertile fields for emotional instability. A display of emotional instability places the leader in a precarious position with regard to employees, because they will question the leader’s objectivity and judgement. Leadving personal problems at home allows the leader to think more clearly and to perform more effectively on the job. One can see the consequences of loss of stability with examples raning from the fall of Alexander the Great to the fall of Captain Queeg in The Cain Mutiny.

The leader must ask, Do I possess objectivity? Do I convey stability to my employees? Do they trust that personal problems will not interfere with my judgment?

If you are just starting to read the Leadership Qualities Series, check out the first post about it and then read the other entries in the series.

Tomorrow’s entry will be on ‘Concern for others‘.

Enthusiasm - Leadership Qualities Series

Genuine enthusiasm is an important trait of a good leader.

Enthusiasm is a form of persuasiveness that causes others to become interest and willing to accept what the leader is attempting to accomplish. Enthusiasm, like other human emotions - laughter, joy, happiness - is contagious. Enthusiasm shown by a leader generates enthusiasm in followers. As Harry Truman once said, “The successful man has enthusiasm. Good work is never done in cold blood; heat is needed to forge anything. Every great achievement is the story of a flaming heart.”

If you are a leader, you must ask, Do I care personally and deeply about what I am doing? Do I show this to my employees? Does my enthusiasm ignite others to take action?

If you are just starting to read the Leadership Qualities Series, check out the first post about it and then read the other entries in the series.

The entry tomorrow will be on Stability!

Ability - Leadership Qualities Series

The leader must know the job - or invite loss of respect. It helps if the leader has done the job before and done it well. Employees seldom respect the individual who constantly must rely on others when making decisions, giving guidance, or solving problems. Although employees usually show a great deal of patience with a new leader, they will lose faith in someone who fails to gain an understanding of the job within a reasonable period of time. Also, the leader must keep job knowledge current. Failure to keep up leads to lack of confidence and loss of employee support. Finally, a leader must have a keen mind to understand information, formulate strategies, and make correct decisions.

Check back tomorrow for the post on Enthusiasm!