You want to get a managerial position: You have been dreaming of the position of a boss for years. Now, you have the opportunity to be a leader and a boss but you are not sure if you should accept it. Ormaybe, you want to know how you can make it to the executive lounge by displaying the qualities of a great leader.
Carrying out efficient leadership today requires various personal skills. You can be born with some of them already integrated but you will have to learn and practice the others.
We often hear about the lack of leaders capable of managing the existing talent in today’s society. On the other hand,not many people can lead their own lives; most of them look upon a leader to guide them.
Leaders enjoy their work, their family, their friends, their partners, and a life of freedom. In this article, you will find the skills and qualities you need to develop to be a great leader.
1. Physical Fitness
A great leader needs to be in good health, look good, and bring sportsmanship in him. It will keep your head clear, improve your performance and you will feel energized all the time.
The connection of fitness with leadership is scientifically proven and has been mentioned in many leadership articles such as this.
2. Active Listening
Leaders must know how to listen to their team. A good leader does not think that his opinions and ideas are always the best. A good leader listens and integrates the ideas of the rest of the colleagues who make up the team. Therefore, listen to the ideas of the rest and try to merge them and improve whenever possible.
3. Visualization and meditation
True leadership has much like a captain of a ship who visualizes the course he is going to follow and transmits it clearly and concisely to his entire team. A team will perform much better if it knows where it is going and when its leader is very clear about the objectives, he wants to achieve.
It has been scientifically proven that our brain does not distinguish between fact and fiction. For this reason, the images we visualize havea similar effect to if we were living them in reality. The same chemicals are produced in the brain when we visualize and when we experience something in reality.
This tool is very useful when we want to align our brain with our purpose and be very clear about the path we want to follow.
Senior leadership needs a great deal of emotion management, and spending a few minutes each day calming the mind and meeting leadership challenges with a calm mind can make a big difference.
4. Decision Making
Decision-making is one of the things that most people fear the most, because of the fear of being wrong or the fear of failure. When we have doubts, we do not make any decisions, so the problem is increasingly aggravated.
Sometimes a leader has to make complicated decisions that involve consequences for many people or himself. It is in these moments that you can see the kind of leadership that you are capable of.
Procrastination is sometimes the result of avoiding making a decision. There is a fear of losing something and it feels better to do nothing.
And a good leader cannot perform good leadership if he lives and manages in fear.
5. Facing Challenges and Fear
Fear is a great friend to make us grow and improve ourselves.
For this reason, rather than running away from their fears, a great leader goes directly towards them because once he has managed to overcome them, he will have managed to be even greater. Running away from fears is like running away from your shadow that does not stop chasing you.
When leadership is based on fear, autocratic leaders emerge. They are the bosses without the ability to lead, who base their actions on threats, shouting, and mistreatment as they remain gripped by fear and lack the ability for good management.
6. Perusing Excellence
Pursuing excellence is teaching our brain that we want to be a little better every day. That we are willing to review how we can improve our life.
Excellence fights every day with the mediocrity that surrounds it and manages to bring out the best qualities of leadership for oneself and others.
7. Reading and Learning
Reading is one of the fastest ways to move toward excellence in leadership.
A good leader needs to evolve and improve every day and therefore bases his leadership on the premise of continuous learning.
And to learn, you have to read the best, other leaders who have travelled the path we intend to tread.
Learning from other people who have already gone through the same path that you are traveling or that you are going to start walking will help you make fewer mistakes and evolve much faster.
8. Effective Communication
Communication reflects the state we are in. Good communication boosts productivity in a team and helps in avoiding misunderstanding, confusion, and loss of time, money, or trust due to miscommunication.
A great leader strives to make himself understood and learns to communicate effectively at all levels.
A great leader uses his words very carefully and with much awareness. Whenever he feels that his words are not appropriate, he apologizes without hesitation and reflects upon the mental state that led to incorrect expression.
9. Humility
A great leader makes others around him feel adequate and respected. A great leader is humble. He does not try to let others down or feel so much pride that he disconnects himself from anyone.
This quality touches others so much that they become his followers.
It generates inner strength that leads him to exercise masterful leadership and attract everyone whom he relates.
10. Motivation
A great leader is a great motivator. You need the motivation to move forward each day and overcome some mental barriers. A great leader transmits motivation, enthusiasm, and energy to achieve goals.
Motivation comes from the visualization of goals and positive results that follow. That is why a great leader inspires others to dream and visualize whatever they want to achieve.
We all have the right resources within us to become a great leader. We just need to bring in these qualities and improve our skills.
Life will keep throwing random stuff at you, but when you are a leader you decide what to do rather than giving power to circumstances and things that are happening to you.
When it comes to writing, she believes that the simplest form of words can help build a better opinion in front of people. With this thought, Garima Aggarwal is an aspiring content writer working in the field for last 2 years. Currently, she is working for TABSCAP. Being from the journalism background, she is passionate to write about topics related to lifestyle, health, and digital marketing.
