What Are The 20 Qualities Of A Good Leader?

Picture of By Darren Finkelstein
By Darren Finkelstein

The Accountability Guy®

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Leader

While leadership comes naturally to some, you can hone and learn some skills to be the best at guiding and leading a team. So, do you want to be a good leader? Here are twenty skills that you should possess.

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1. Truthfulness

You will always want people in your team to be honest with you. However, you cannot build trust unless you trust your team and give them facts yourself.

2. Accountability

You should have the ability to hold people accountable for their tasks and efficiency. Accountability does not mean that you will breathe down their necks to meet deadlines. Instead, your team should respect you enough to want to meet commitments through accountability towards you.

3. Responsibility

The only way to induce responsibility in your team is t=by being responsible yourself. Take onus of your actions and commitments, and you will see both your and your team being very productive.

4. Self-Awareness

While Tabula Rasa is not possible, try to be as self-aware and free of biases as possible. Introspection helps you act in healthier ways instead of acting in the heat of the moment.

5. Assertiveness

A good leader should articulate their ideas and expectations calmly and confidently. The power of saying no and making decisions about when it is necessary to stand up for your team is crucial for leaders to realize.

6. Empathy

Each leader leads a team of humans – not machines. Therefore, empathy and cutting of slack when necessary are skills that leaders need to learn to avoid over-stressing their team. Remember, a happy team of three can be more efficient than a burnt-out team of ten.

7. Ability to Listen

You cannot always be in the right, and sometimes listening to what others have to opine, contribute, or say makes a huge difference in how you and your team function.

8. Appreciation

Just like empathy, humans need appreciation to feel validated and good about the work they’re doing. The more effective and frequent the appreciation, the more motivated people will be. Therefore, something as simple as acknowledging someone’s contribution goes a long way.

 

9. Skill Management

A leader should know their team’s strengths and weaknesses to access the right kind of work for the right person. This not only helps get tasks done perfectly but also helps the team hoe its skills.

 

10. Problem Solving

When people face problems, they turn to their leader to get the solutions. You need to have the understanding and clarity enough to help your team solve issues instead of snowballing them.

 

11. Time Management

As a leader, you’ll have a lot of things on your plate at any given hour. Therefore, you will have to learn how to manage your time better to allow your entire team’s workflow to occur smoothly.

 

12. Patience

Every effective leader should wait to see the results of their own or their team’s efforts. While getting frustrated because of non-speedy results is natural, you do not want to overburden anyone with high expectations. 

 

13. Networking

To continuously learn what the industry and your co-workers want or need, you need to network. It is only through effective networking that you can thrive and not survive in today’s competitive environment.

 

14. Clarity of Thoughts

 Before communicating responsibilities to others, good leaders can wire their thoughts perfectly to communicate effectively.

 

15. Organization

Whether it is time, task, or physical environment organization, if a person is not well-organized, it is impossible for them to be effective and lead a team in a planned manner.

 

16. Attention to Detail

While supervising, you should be able to pay close attention to detail and catch the small things others might have missed. These small things generally make or break a situation.

 

17. Reliability

You should be a person of your words. If you have committed to act, you should do it. If you’re not reliable, your team will find it hard to trust and work with you.

 

18. Resilience

A leader should be able to get past the bumps on their road without losing productivity and motivate their team to look past their mistakes.

 

19. Passion

If you do not believe in what you’re doing, you cannot expect your team to do the same. Passion and motivation drive teams, and since you’re the leader, you should be the master of them both.

 

20. Impression Management

Leaders need to be in good light not because of popularity and positional advantage but because of their deeds. The more your team likes you as a human, the more they will be likely to be productive and loyal to you.