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It’s Only Common Sense: Leadership Qualities 101

Do you have what it takes to be the kind of leader who can inspire his troops to follow him through hell? Or are you the kind of leader who couldn’t get his people to follow him across the street to a free buffet? I have had both in my life, and unfortunately, I have had more of the latter. I once had a leader who was famous for saying, “We’re not worse than anyone else!” 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 thought you could and 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?

To capture lightning in a bottle, let’s talk about 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 is no way around this. If a person does not have these qualities nothing else will work.
• A visionary: A great leader must be able to see the future better than anyone else in the company. She must be able to completely understand the company’s role in that future, as well.
• Flexible: She must be able to adapt to whatever situation comes up and then successfully steer his company through that situation.
• Courageous: A great leader must be able to make those tough decisions. Let someone go when it is time or keep an important person who is unpopular with the rest of the team.
• Customer-focused: She must be the company’s number one customer advocate. A great leader never speaks poorly of a customer no matter how aggravating that customer is. She is always at the forefront of customer advocacy, explaining to the rest of the team that without customers there is no business.
• A leader by example: She must plan to get caught doing the right thing, whether it is picking up a piece of paper in the parking lot or treating everyone on the company with proper respect no matter what their position is.
• Curious: A great leader must always be curious about what is going in her company, in the market, and with her customers. She must always be asking questions, always trying to learn more and become a better leader.
• Ferocious: Yes, she should be ferocious when it comes to protecting her own, whether it’s the company’s image in the marketplace or a team member.

And finally, a great leader must have compassion for her people, and always be trying to understand them. Seeing things through their eyes so that she can create a better work quality of life for them. That same compassion should extend to customers and vendors.

Think about the leaders in your company. 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.