Six Characteristics of Great Leaders

Lead yourself to greatness.

What makes a leader tick has been the subject books, films, seminars, and university degrees for decades now.

At the core of what they teach is that good leadership will lead to a booming business and more financial gain. But what if we told you leadership is way more than that?  

Leadership skills are equally important in your family, sporting club, friendship group, neighbourhood community, and even amongst your colleagues.

In fact, you don’t need to be in a position of authority or management to use your leadership skills.

To help you start thinking about how you can develop your leadership skills, here are six characteristics of great leaders.

Self-awareness.

Having a high level of self-awareness means you’re aware of your own feelings, motives, desires, beliefs, strengths, and weaknesses. Essentially, what makes you, you.

Great leaders use this in several ways. First up, a leader’s awareness of their limitations prompts them to find people who possess the skills they lack and can help them learn and grow.

Secondly, good self-awareness helps a leader to reflect on their actions and consider how they could have done things differently. This involves asking themselves questions like, “did I speak too harshly?” or “how can I view this from their perspective?”.

Great leaders aren’t mentally stagnant, they regularly take stock of themselves because they know there is always room to grow.

Empower others.

Great leaders empower people to do better and there are so many ways to do this.

Firstly, they provide vision. Painting the bigger picture of where the team is headed to make everyone feel included.

Empowerment also comes from encouragement. When people are doing a great job or being the best version of themselves, tell them! There is nothing more powerful than when a leader notices your hard work and commends you for it.

Finally, a great leader empowers through delegation. When they’re looking to help someone grow, leaders will delegate responsibility to challenge them to step up. Delegation leads to people learning a new skill and growing in their own capacity.

Strong integrity.

Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral values—something that is core to being a great leader.

What does this practically look like? It means they don’t lie or make false promises, they keep their commitments, never take shortcuts, and always do what is right even if it isn’t the best thing for the business.

Better yet, a great leader does these things even when no one is watching.

If you lack integrity and prove to be dishonest, it will be very hard for people to trust you, let alone follow.

Humility.

A humble leader is one that shifts attention away from themselves to let others shine. They are not proud but modest and do not believe they are better than other people.

Inside they are fiercely confident in their abilities while making sure their outward appearance doesn’t come off as arrogant.

On top of that, a humble leader will acknowledge that there are skills they don’t have, and instead of hiding them, will make clear to others that this is an area they struggle with.

Passion.

A great leader is passionate about their goals. They know exactly what they want and are fully committed to achieving it.

Practically, this looks like a strong sense of belief in what they want to achieve and a willingness to inspire others to feel the same, often through enthusiasm.

Accountability.

Finally, a great leader is one that is accountable for their actions. The buck stops with them, and they know it.

This means that they accept responsibility for their decisions and behaviours, even if they result in a negative outcome. They do not blame others when things go wrong.

Accountability in leaders is good because it shows people that they don’t shy away when things go wrong but take them head-on, even if it means admitting to a mistake or defeat.

Every single one of these skills above is not exclusive to people in leadership, they can be found in all kinds of people. You can start working at getting better at any one of these skills today because there will be situations in your everyday life where you can demonstrate leadership.

If you want to grow as a leader then a great place to start is by taking the Boosting Your Leadership Skills course with Student Edge Plus.

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