When you study great leaders through history, or even a selection of great leaders who exist today, you will notice that they have certain qualities in common. There are personality traits that help to define who exactly is a great leader and who isn’t. With enough work, you can try to develop these same traits in yourself, or at the very least, identify who among your contacts is destined for leadership!
A crucial component of being a good leader is having self-awareness and self-knowledge. In short, know what you know and know what you don’t know. If you aren’t able to help out with something, it’s better to know that you don’t know and then make an effort to learn or refer the requestor to another person than to struggle and fail at the task. Having self-awareness allows you to understand what you haven’t yet achieved or learned, and then learn it. (And being able to laugh at yourself is another trait that can come in handy!) At the same time, don’t be too egotistic and think that you know everything; a truly self-knowledgeable person won’t claim to know everything, because they will be aware that they don’t.
A sense of commitment, and willingness to fail, is another important quality that a great leader should have. This only makes sense – would many of the world-renowned achievements that have improved our quality of life today have been possible without stubborn tenacity and a willingness to fail many times in search of the one possible, even unlikely, success?
The ability to change and learn is a very important skill for great leaders to possess. Someone who is resistant to change will quickly be pushed aside or outdated in our rapidly-changing society. Just a generation ago, the internet wasn’t the ubiquitous force it was today, and a few generations ago, workers were employed by the same company their entire lives, women usually stayed at home to mind children, and television was a new phenomenon. Things change very quickly these days, and you have to be able to keep up with the changes, learn new skills, and more importantly, synthesize all this new information and potential. When you can see possibilities in things that you didn’t know about before, you can take advantage of them and become a great leader in whatever field or profession you choose.
Excellent communication skills are also necessary to be a great leader. Most of us have to communicate with many people on a daily basis, but someone with strong leadership skills can rally them to action, calm them, interact easily with people, and understand where they are coming from. Just as importantly, they have to be able to get their point across in a concise and accurate manner, and it’s not always easy to put ideas into words.
Willingness to go the extra distance is the last trait a great leader should have. Whether a scientist inventing a life-saving cure or a manager helping his employees get their preferred vacation dates, people appreciate it when you go out of your way, or exceed expectations.
Whether you think great leaders are born or made, most of them share at least these five traits in common.