Develop leadership traits

Develop leadership traits

Leader must have right principles and to use his leadership only for good purpose. He must serve others, and stay focused. 

Think daily about leadership's meaning and purpose and re-affirm vision. Leader always stands for something. If leader not stand for something good, he can easy give into something bad.

Have a positive attitude. Don’t be negative. 

Leader's actions should create only positive morale amongst his team. Positiveness is  contagious and it helps get more out of the team. Leader's duty is to make his followers believe that  things are much better than it seems, even if there is a tension. If leader acts unprofessionally, soon he will be surprised at the loss of respect he will receive. Remember this old adage: "It takes years to build respect, but it is enough just seconds to lose it…” 

 

Be passionate about the objectives and organization

When leader becomes passionate about any his task, project or goal, his team also will become passionate about it.  Leader should direct his passion for the best into his employees. The key between being good and  great leader is passion. Leader wants his department to be exclusive, not just good enough that means average. Leader  should be passionate about to become world-class business organization and his team will sure follow such leader.

Be enthusiastic and optimistic. 

If leader is striving for a better prosperous future with an energetic drive, it becomes contagious. His team will pick up on the same energy. They start to wish and seek for better future just as much as their leader does. Leader's task is make his team want to be the best and be proud in their work.

The more optimistic and enthusiastic is leader, the more his team start identify with working in a successful business.

Be self assured yet humble with 
strong character traits. 

Honest and modest leader, who has his charisma, energetic drive, integrity,  and aggression in good sense, is easy to follow and easy to respect.

Leader should always be self-confident, but not conceited. Self-confidence is other key element of a strong leader. Confidence with a little humility is a great mixture of  leader's traits, and people are more drawn to such leader.

 

Have a high standard of excellence. 

Leader should have always an internal desire to do his best. He must have a sense of duty and be proud about his work. Also he must pay attention to every detail and always strive to be the best.

 

Be ethically sound

Leader should always practice ethics of good business and he will not get caught up in any troubles. I know, it sounds too simple, however, this is extremely important. 

Basically, leader should not lie to his followers, should not ignore his customers or steal from team or company,  should not ship invalid goods and so on.

Be friendly, but not their best friend

There always are rumors about favoritism, but in great team this should not exist. Of course it looks  impossible to stop being friends if leaders friends start working with him, however, he should keep his friendship quiet. The toughest thing, or one of toughest things about being a leader is to find balance between being just friendly and being too friendly with employees.

A great leader will start losing respect if he becomes too involved in personal friendships with his followers. It is  natural that his leader's mystique will start to evaporate. If you want to stay respected leader, you must find the line between being just friendly and being best friend with someone who works fr you. If your best friend works for you, you must be very careful and never show too much favoritism to someone, but you can to keep  friendship outside of work. It is possible to be friendly at work, but not as best friends.

Be thick skinned and ready to take risks

Although it is nice feature of being kind and cheerful to everyone, there can be times when leader needs to be responsible and even  aggressive to the needs of his team. People expect this from their leader, and good leader knows when is right time to do this. Leader should not be known as panicking one, but he does need to sound the alarm when he starts to see the cracks. Leader needs to make right decisions and of course at times take the necessary risk to change situation. Every leader should be thick skinned, he should stand firm behind his decisions. here is saying that if you never take risks, you will never grow...

 

Have a mental toughness 

 Leader should be able to deal with adversity and disappointments. If you are considering yourself as leader - be cool under pressure,  don't worry about what could happen if... It is just waste of time. 

Be able to take criticism

Leader may get some criticism and his actions  tell a lot about his management's strength. Whatever he is doing, he should be not defensive. People  are temped first reaction to take personally, however, leader should try to hold on his emotions and stay cool. It is better to listen to what others have to say about your working and don’t just brush it off. If criticism has some good points, leader should be sure to acknowledge it and address criticism in a professional manner and even to thank. If criticism has bad points, leader should calmly state his objections, but it is good to ensure that he will take the points into consideration. And better to do it without sounding sarcastic.

  

Be empathetic

Leader, dealing with his followers or employees crisis, should try to put himself into other person’s shoes. It is known that looking at issues from other people' point of view is giving us more insight on how better to deal with emotional type of problems that come our way.

Keep a cool head

Sometimes followers and even customers can be irrational, can show no common sense, can be uncooperative or disrespectful. Even in a difficult situation, leader should always keep his head cool and use a calm tone. He should be sure that present himself with an understanding attitude. He should let them know that he does care and will sure do all that he only can for to resolve any issue.

It is must to treat the other person with respect always, no matter how absurd this other person may be. be always polite and should whatever signs of respect, proper for the particular moment. Talk without condescending tone. Remember that even being under pressure, grace is absolutely must in the world of management.

Don’t lose your temper 

If leader loses his temper - he loses respect. He can show that still is serious about something even if is a bit stern and direct, but should never blow his top. Some leaders develop some sort of indicator to use as a reminder at the moments when they are ready to explode. These indicators  can be object or image, such as your wedding ring, if it is meaningful to you. That can become good reminder to stop and think about what is better to say next.

Also, it is good to stay away from using foul language. If you think, you will agree that rarely see a truly respected leader who is cussing.

 

Take a break when needed 

When leader starts feeling overwhelmed or stressed, he should take a little break, for instance, take a walk, make coffee or get a glass of water.

It is important to clear the mind while you are getting some exercises, because you do not want to take out your stress on someone else, and especially when it is unjustified.

Do what you say you are going to do as soon as possible

Leader gains establishing himself as a leader when he shows interest in making necessary and positive changes. If he is doing right away what he said he was going to do, he earns immediate respect. But if he does not follow up his promise, he will sure start losing credibility as a leader. Better provide a solid reason why if you cannot do it, and let them know immediately. Your people at least will know that you tried, but didn't just brush it off.

 

Be emotionally stable

We all have challenges, and stress with frustration are challenges that every leader is facing. Have a leadership mentality integral in your mind, it will brings your psychological maturity to the next level. 

True leader always need to be ready and able to deal with any stressful situation that come his way. 

 

Don’t be defensive

The respect leader has earned, or still is trying to earn, can easy evaporate in just moments. This does not mean that leader should not debate a point or should not have an opinion. Leader should not take a suggestions which he does not like, or related comments too personally.

In such situation it is better to calmly reply, without any excuses, to say that you will look into others suggestions or  improvements, and assure that you will get back to it as soon as possible.

 

 

Never back stab anyone ever

Never back stab anyone ever. If you do it, be sure, sooner or late it will come back to haunt you. Remember that person who is known as a backstabber, will never be known as a solid leader.