There are certain qualities that help a person become a more effective leader. Here are some key strengths for leadership to help you gain an insight into the topic.
Leadership is the ability of a person to guide people in a group towards achieving a task in hand. There are many qualities that help you to become a good leader. A person needs to capitalize on certain strengths to be able to effectively lead a team. In the paragraphs below, you will find a compiled list that you need to keep in mind to be a good leader.
Task Execution
~ There’s many a slip between cup and lip. Coming up with a brilliant idea and executing that idea are two completely different things.
~ Bringing an idea to life is lot easier said than done. An idea really comes to life only when it is executed to perfection.
~ This is one of the most important traits. You need to be a team player.
~ There is a fine line between having followers that follow you out of respect and having followers that follow because they have no choice.
~ Any kind of discord in the team reflects in the end result and the efficiency of the task performed.
Envision
~ Before you go on to put any kind of strategy into place, you need to understand and envision what you wish to achieve.
~ This is important, because the expectations of the entire group will ride on your shoulders.
~ Thus, one of the important strengths is to be a visionary; you need to have a very clear vision about how to go about a task at hand, keeping the long term and short term goals and repercussions in mind.
~ You need to be realistic yet optimistic about the prospects involved in any task and must take into consideration all the risks involved.
Listen
~ Being the leader does not mean that you own the people you work with. Many people tend to get carried away and do not listen to their team members.
~ This can go against them, as the team members tend to lose respect for their leader. Hence, it is very important to possess the ability to listen to your teammates.
~ You need to genuinely listen to your team members, because they are the only ones that will tell you if you go wrong at any point of time. Furthermore, listening will make sure that you connect with your team members on a personal level, which will improve the performance of your team greatly.
Relationship Building
~ Two people are never alike. Everyone has a different mentality and a different way of thinking.
~ Thus, there is always scope for discord and dispute within group members. In such cases, you need to be the peacemaker.
~ You need to be the one who manages to listen to both sides of the story from an unbiased, third person’s point of view.
~ Furthermore, when an idea is conveyed, be sure to never be outright and rule out any kind of suggestion offered, no matter how irrelevant or unrealistic it may be. This makes it look like the group is following a dictatorship, which in general, brings down the morale of the group.
~ Thus, relationship building within and out of a team is one of the most important strengths that a person needs to keep in mind.
Accept Mistakes
~ There will be times when as a leader and as a group, you may fail. This may be a hard time for you, but you need to understand that patience is the key.
~ Lashing out at your team members and blaming them for failure will only add to your resentment.
~ If the success is shared, so must be the failure. Therefore, when the team fails, ensure that you take an equal amount of responsibility in the failure.
~ Do not cower to admit defeat, because if you do so, then you may lose the respect of your team. So accept your mistake, learn, and try to improvise as a leader.
~ This will earn you respect and the most loyal team members you can ever hope to find.
Thus, leadership strengths are essential qualities that distinguish a good leader from a bad one. It may perhaps be true that leaders are born; however, they a person can always be a good leader if he capitalizes on the above strengths.