10 Great Leader Qualities Principle

Ten Basic Skills of Outstanding Leadership

• Integrity
• Vision/strategy
• Communication
• Relationships
• Persuasion
• Adaptability
• Teamwork
• Coaching and Development
• Decision-making
• Planning

Definition and Explanation of the Ten Basic Skill Leadership

Integrity 

How deep are your convictions on the things you believe in? What do you believe in SO MUCH about your work that you will stand up to anyone about it? How much are you willing to compromise your important beliefs? To what extent do your behavior and tne choices you make align with your guiding values and principles?

Integrity means honesty and more. It refers to having strong internal guiding principles that one does not compromise. It means treating others as you would wish to be treated.
Many experts believe that a solid sense of right and wrong and strong guiding principles are the most essential and basic of all leadership skills or characteristics. Integrity promotes trust, and not much is accomplished without trust.
Integrity is a skill to the extent that we see it in action. But it goes much deeper than surface actions. It is based on one’s guiding beliefs and values, and is an important example of an essential leadership quality.
Integrity (or lack thereof) is reflected in thinking, attitudes, and actions. People can’t directly see your level of integrity, but they judge it pretty accurately on a gut level based on your actions and your words.
 
Vision/strategy

Can you see, do you see where your department, team, and organization are going? How often do you talk about the ways in which what you are doing in your area are related to the overall mission? Do you think and speak inspiring about what the organization is doing and about the future of the organization?

A leader must have a clear idea where his or her organization and unit are going beyond this month’s results or this year’s budget. Where is it going in the long term? Even tactical leaders must be clear about this and need to refer frequently to the vision, mission, and values of the organization in their communications with others. Vision is another example of an essential leadership quality.

Communication

How much and how willingly do you speak out and keep information flowing? Conversely, can you keep confidential information private? How often can and do you listen more than you speak in conversations with your employees? How would you assess your communication skills with each of your employees? How do you handle “bad news” when you receive it?

The chief complaint of employees in nearly every organization of all types, whether large or small from any industry segment, is “lack of communication.” Communication in the context of leadership refers to both interpersonal communications between the leader and followers and the overall flow of needed information throughout the organization.

Leaders need to learn to be proficient in both the communication that informs and seeks out information (gives them a voice) and the communication that connects interpersonally with others. Communication is another example leadership skill that must be cultivated by all leaders.

Relationships

What is the level of trust and respectful feelings you have with each of your employees? With each of your peers? How easy or difficult is it for you to initiate new relationships? Deepen existing relationships?

Networking (the art of social “schmoozing”) is also a relationship skill. Relationships develop from good interpersonal and group communication skills but relationship skills also go deeper.
A leader who likes dealing with people issues, who can initiate and deepen relationships with others, has a great leadership advantage. This is a leader who can build a team and achieve impressive results.
This kind of leadership is based on personal power (the right kind of power), not position power. Relationship-building is an example of an essential leadership quality.

Persuasion

How persuasive and influential are you? Under what circumstances can you persuade others to your point of view? To what extent do people value your opinion and follow your lead?

The ability to influence others and cause them to move in a particular direction is a highly important skill in leadership. In fact, leadership is often defined as the ability to persuade or influence others to do something they might not have done without the leader’s persuasion.

Your ability to be persuasive is directly related to how much people trust you and how good your communication and relationships are. Persuasion (also called influence) is a good example of an essential leadership skill.

Adaptability

To what degree can you relinquish rigidity? Control? When is it easy and when difficult for you to embrace change? How do you react when things don’t go as planned?
 
Adaptability and flexibility in not being bound by a plan are important success factors in leadership today. The leader must move easily from one set of circumstances (the plan) to the next (the plan is not going as expected) and take them all in stride, even when the circumstances are unexpected.
The good leader has to embrace change and see it as opportunity. The leadership skill of adaptability is another example of a critical skill.

Teamwork

To what extent do you value working cooperatively as part of a group? How do you promote teamwork among those you lead? In what ways do you work collaboratively with your peers? How do you handle team conflict?

No one person can do it all. That’s why a team, comprised of others with different skill sets, is essential. A leader must know how to build and nurture such a team. A good leader knows when to be a leader and when to be a follower.

The best leaders are good followers when that's what is needed. Building teamwork is another essential leadership skill example.

Coaching and Development

How do you feel about developing others around you? How do you encourage, nurture, and build the capacity of those you lead? How easy or hard is it for you to set your needs aside and share control with others? Can/do you delegate well?

Developing others is an important role for a leader. Encouraging others to expand their capabilities and take on additional assignments is part of the leader’s responsibility. Leaders who feel threatened by the capabilities of others are challenged in this area. Coaching and development are essential skills all leaders must cultivate.

Decision-making

How comfortable are you with having to make the “final decision” on things? Do you have any tendency to decide too quickly without due consideration or, conversely, to gather data, analyze and ponder endlessly and be unable to decide? In what areas do you struggle with making firm decisions and standing up for what you believe?

A leader must be able to wade through information, comprehend what’s relevant, make a well-considered decision, and take action based on that decision. Making decisions too quickly or too slowly will impede your leadership effectiveness. Decisiveness is another example of an essential leadership quality.

Planning

How easy is it for you to put together plans for activities and projects, including contingency plans (what will happen IF…)? How easily are you able to focus your attention and stick to your plan, yet without being rigid about it? How do you decide when to push ahead or, instead, to modify your plan?

Planning involves making certain assumptions about the future and taking actions in the present to positively influence that future. To plan means to focus more strategically. Plans are important for guidance and focus, but plans can seldom be cast in stone. Planning is an excellent and necessary example leadership skill.

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Types of Leadership Styles

What are the Three Main Types of Leadership Styles?

Participative Leadership: This is probably the best leadership style followed in the business world. In participative leadership style, though the leader is responsible for taking the final decision, he is open for suggestions from team members, which can influence the decision.

Autocratic Leadership: In this leadership, the leader solely carries out the decision making process. The autocratic leadership style is a very suitable method for managing team members who require close supervision to get the work done.

Laissez Faire Leadership: In the laissez faire leadership, the leader leaves it on the team members to do the work which they are supposed to. This is a good style to be implemented if the members are skilled enough and understand their responsibilities properly.

Other Types of Leadership Styles

Charismatic Leadership: In charismatic leadership, the leader puts in energy and enthusiasm into the project of the team. He does motivate and helps employees; though he may, at times, tend to boast much about his leadership skills and capabilities.

Bureaucratic Leadership: A bureaucratic leader is one who makes sure that the standard procedures of the process is followed by the team members. This style rules out the scope for trying out new problem solving methods and enhancing the project performance.

Relation-oriented Leadership: This style is also referred to as people-oriented style. In this corporate leadership style, the leader tries his best to support and mentor the team members, which in turn turns out to be beneficial for the project.

Servant Leadership: In servant leadership, the leader is not officially intended to act as a leader. He is just an informal leader who takes one step forward on behalf of his team members. He takes decisions collectively by consulting with his colleagues.

Transformational Leadership: This is a good leadership style that is suitable for any work environment. In transformational leadership, the leader provides motivation to his team, to perform tasks for the on-time deliverable of the project.

Task-oriented Leadership: A task-oriented leader is usually known for only focusing on what his team has to achieve. Though, unlike in autocratic leadership, he might understand the needs and welfare of the team members.

Transactional Leadership: This is a somewhat direct kind of effective leadership. It includes a direct authority given to the leader with regards to punishing and rewarding team members, owing to the results of the project.

Situational Leadership: As the name suggests, situational leadership is not associated with any kind of style. It is adopted when a leader changes types of leadership styles in order to get the work done considering the situation.

These are the known types of leadership styles used at present. Remember that a leader might have to use a particular team leadership style in a specific work setting, where other styles may not be effective. 

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5 Keys to Leadership for Small Business

1. A leader plans.

The core of leadership is being proactive rather than reactive. Sure, leaders are good in crises – but that doesn’t mean they sit around letting crises develop. Leadership involves identifying potential problems and solving them before they reach crisis proportions – and the ability to identify and reap potential windfalls. So good leaders analyze and plan and adapt their plans to new circumstances and opportunities.

2. A leader has a vision.

Vision is essential to good leadership. Vision provides direction and without direction, there’s not much point to all that planning; your small business will still flail about. So if you don’t have one already, take your first step towards leadership by creating a Vision Statement for your business. Because it embodies your dreams and your passions, a vision statement will also serve as a leadership vision.

3. A leader shares her vision.

Sharing your leadership vision helps your vision grow and your leadership develop. As you tell your leadership vision to others, you will strengthen your own belief in your vision and strengthen your determination to make your leadership vision become reality. And other people will start to see you as a person who’s “going places”. Your leadership skills will grow as you and other people recognize you as a person with leadership potential.

4. A leader takes charge.

At this stage of leadership, you put together your planning and your leadership vision and take action. Whether it’s implementing a specific plan to improve your business’s bottom line or responding to a crisis, you, as the leader, are the one who makes the decisions and sees that the appropriate actions are carried out. You can’t just “talk a good game” to be a leader; you need to act and to be seen as taking effective action for the good of your small business.

5. A leader inspires through example.

If I asked you, you could easily name three people whose leadership qualities inspire you. If I asked you why, you’d tell me about the things these inspiring people did or are doing. Leadership is defined through action. Therefore, in developing your own leadership skills, you have to act in ways that are fitting to your leadership vision and your self – all the time. We can all name many actions of other people whom we admire, but what inspires us is the integrity that gives these actions meaning.

Becoming a leader isn’t easy because it takes a conscious commitment and consistent effort to develop one’s leadership skills. But on the positive side, anyone who is willing to make the effort can become a good leader.

And as good leadership is critical to business success, your efforts to improve your leadership skills will be amply rewarded. By working on these five keys of leadership, you can become the leader your small business needs.

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Leadership

Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task”. Definitions more inclusive of followers have also emerged.

A simple definition of leadership is that leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal.

Put even more simply, the leader is the inspiration and director of the action. He or she is the person in the group that possesses the combination of personality and skills that makes others want to follow his or her direction.

In business, leadership is welded to performance. Effective leaders are those who increase their company's bottom lines.

 

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