5 Key Qualities that Make a Great Leader

5 Key Qualities that Make a Great Leader: 

Covid-19 has thrown our professional lives into the most turbulent stretch in living memory, and we all know that nothing tests the strength of leadership more than uncertainty and fear. Even relatively strong leaders may have found themselves subject to rumours, paranoid theorizing, and demotivation. 

The thing is when your team or followers lose faith in you and your abilities, it becomes extremely difficult to change course. Restoring or ideally, preserving the faith of your followers is what we’ll be exploring a little more closely today.

1. Loyalty: 

Loyalty, like respect, must be earned and not demanded. Naturally, that can lead to a ‘chicken or the egg’ scenario when attempting to build loyalty in the first place. It is your responsibility as a leader to prove your loyalty to your team. It’s not a wholly difficult thing to achieve either. True loyalty in the workplace can be as simple as ensuring your team have all the resources, time and training to complete their jobs to the best of their ability – while also standing up for and defending your team when external conflicts arise. 

"Loyalty cannot be blueprinted. It cannot be produced on an assembly line. In fact, it cannot be manufactured at all, for its origin is the human heart-the centre of self-respect and human dignity. It is a force which leaps into being only when conditions are exactly right for it and it is a force very sensitive to betrayal." 
 

— Maurice R. Franks 

2. Communication: 

No list such as this is complete without the addition of one of the most underrated and ill-appreciated tools available to humanity. Communication, both verbal and non-verbal of course, forms how your team sees you as a leader. Your tone, body language, eye contact, hand gestures, speech, and ability to listen - all contribute to how you motivate, comfort, discipline and instruct your people. It’s very easy for some of these elements to misfire in isolation which throws the entire delivery of your message out of whack potentially framing you as an ineffectual and weak leader in the eyes of your team. 

“Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.” 

Plato 

3. Genuine Enthusiasm: 

The further down the rank and file of an organisation you go, the further removed employees typically become from a company’s mission and goals. The average Apple Store employee didn’t seek out their role after reading Steve Job’s autobiography and committing their life to the betterment of the Apple Corporation. They needed a job to pay rent and bills, and chose the best option laid out before them. Enthusiasm, but more importantly, genuine enthusiasm for your industry and product or service offering needs to be overflowing from you as a leader. Apple CEO, Tim Cook needs to remind his employees on the frontline just how amazing Apple’s products are and just how much potential they are opening for people by imparting their know-how upon Apple’s customers. 

“Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success.” – Dale Carnegie 

4. Integrity: 

Can any of us truly respect or appreciate a leader without integrity? If you couldn’t do it, don’t expect your employees to! True integrity is an all or nothing thing, and that’s what we’re talking about here. Any of us can have integrity most of the time but only a select few can maintain it 24/7. The leadership benefit from integrity comes from the instant, automatic reassurance your employees feel when your integrity is called into question. This steadfast belief that you will do the right thing no matter what, is what pushes your employees that little bit further, because they know, in their position, you would do the same. 

“Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.” 

W. Clement Stone 

5. Empowerment: 

Your team are grown-ups and need to be treated that way, nobody likes a backseat driver or to be micro-managed. A good leader has faith in their ability to train and develop his/her employees. Because of this, they have the willingness to empower those they lead to act autonomously. This comes from trusting that their team members are fully up to any challenges they face. When employees are empowered, they are more likely to make decisions that are in the best interest of the company and the client. This is true, even if it means allowing your team to go a little off-script. 

"My job as a leader is to make sure that everybody in the company has great opportunities and they feel they are having meaningful impact to the good of society."  

Larry Page