5 Key Leadership Traits
“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” – John C. Maxwell.
Learning to be a good leader is paramount if you own your own business and are aiming for business success. Let’s discuss five key traits of a good leader.
- Have a clear vision for the future of the business
A clear vision for the future of the business is necessary to ensure you’re progressing toward your goals. Without long term goals, there’s no way to make short term goals, which offers no potential for growth.
Goals need to be clearly outlined, as well as the journey toward achieving them in workable, measurable steps and feature a realistic time frame in which you aim to meet these goals.
- Make keeping top talent a priority
Finding top talent, and then ensuring you keep said talent, is one of the most important aspects of being a good leader. Competent and effective employees can make a business, but losing them, can break one.
A good leader inspires trust and respect from valuable employees and regularly checks in with them. In this way, leaders can regulate the working conditions to ensure the most satisfactory conditions for employees, thus promoting increased productivity and job satisfaction.
- Develop and train your managers to manage effectively
Career development and training is necessary for all employees, especially those in a managerial role. If an employee is promoted to manager status but has no experience in such a role, they may neglect certain facets of the job. These struggles can be mitigated with proper training or development.
Sacrificing the limited time needed to ensure thorough training has been completed and the necessary skills have been internalised, will be more beneficial to your company, than simply pushing them into a role they are ill equipped for.
- Stay open and agile to change
Change happens. Often when you least expect it. Change cannot always be predicted, controlled or prepared for. What you can control, is your reaction to change.
Remaining open and agile to change as it comes is the only way to remain at least somewhat in control. Rolling with the punches and staying positive will allow you to futureproof your business. Sometimes, if handled correctly, change can be transformative in the very best way, as opportunities you may not previously have had may open up for you.
- Consciously use your emotions to inspire your people
A good leader controls their emotions. These leaders know that, in the same way as excessive anger can demotivate a team, realistic positivity can inspire a team.
By regulating your emotions, you can lead by example and potentially encourage your team to find the positive in situations and not allow themselves to become overly frustrated, defeated or any other emotions that negatively affect productivity.
Being a good leader is something you need to actively work on every day. The choices you make as a leader will affect your team.
You get to decide if this effect is positive or negative.
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