If you want to become a leader during your career, one that is as successful as possible, it’s important to concentrate on more...
If you want to become a leader
during your career, one that is as successful as possible, it’s important to
concentrate on more than just learning about your industry. There are many key
characteristics leaders need to have to be able to effectively motivate,
inspire and engage
a team of workers. Read on for some of the most vital traits leaders
demonstrate, which you should be honing in yourself today.
Focus
For starters, all leaders, particularly business owners,
need to have the ability to focus well if they want to lead a successful team.
You need to know what your goals are each week, month, quarter and year, and you
should continually work towards them, alongside your staff. Being focused will
enable you to become an expert in your field because you can zone in on an area
and learn everything you need to know about it.
Keep in mind, too, that as a leader you will have many
potential opportunities, and disruptions, competing for your attention all the
time. This means you need to be focused, so you can pick the right things to
work on and don’t waste your valuable time on tasks that will never take you
closer to achieving your goals.
Resilience
Being a business owner or a manager is tough and will see
you having to face challenges time after time, as well as plenty of rejection
from investors, shoppers, suppliers, bosses and others. To ensure you don’t
give up at the first hurdle, you must be resilient. This characteristic will
ensure you keep going, even if you feel full of despair, anger or frustration -
or if you are overwhelmed and exhausted.
Resilience is also something you need if you want to learn
from your mistakes and keep trying new things. People who aren’t resilient will
often be so heartbroken over a failure (or rather, “lack of success”) that they
give up and don’t examine what they might have done differently and how they
might learn from the experience. They also often become too afraid to try
innovative things in the future. Since being creative is vital in all
organizations and for all types of leaders, this can be a big issue.
Persistence and Patience
Listen to many of the world’s top
business founders and other leaders talk about their journeys, and
you’ll hear them mention how they got told “no” time after time - but they continued
trying, no matter what. It is often the fiftieth attempt at something that
bears fruit and proves just how necessary persistence is.
Along the same lines, leaders also need to be patient.
Although you will always want to achieve results quickly, the fact is that
building a brand, getting traction in a market, completing projects and many
other tasks take time. You’ll need patience to help you stick with your plans
and direction, so you don’t give up too early.
Communication
Of course, another key trait that the most successful
leaders demonstrate is being able to communicate effectively. As a leader,
you’ll need to be able to explain your vision, requests, concerns and other
information in a clear way that your team will understand the first time. You
have to be able to chat well with people from all sorts of backgrounds and know
how to hold your temper and not let your emotions get the better of you in
situations.
As you’ll discover in business, or when completing an online
MBA or other type of management-related course, leaders must be able
to communicate well in different forms, too. This covers things like talking to
people one-on-one and in groups; making presentations and pitches; writing
documents, emails, text messages and the like; chatting over the phone; and
talking over video conferences. You must therefore work hard to hone your
skills in all of these different areas. Plus, being able to negotiate well is another
communication ability to work on.
Flexibility
If you want to get the most out of your team (and yourself),
you need to be a flexible person. Things regularly don’t go to plan in business;
you can face unexpected challenges, employees can disappoint you and more, so
you must be adept at dealing with setbacks or delays.
Flexible leaders are also able to move staff members around
the department or business as needed at different times of the year and to make
best use of resources. Additionally, they must be open to changing tack as required
or going down new paths when good opportunities present themselves.
