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Leadership Qualities - People want leadership, and organizations are hungry for good leaders. Be one, and you’ll be in demand.
- Being a leader is a lifelong learning process. It is a practice of self-awareness, consciousness, self-discipline, and judicious self-expression.
- Being a leader is one of the greatest opportunities you can have for personal and professional growth. You will be continuously challenged by ever-changing circumstances. Boredom is seldom a problem.
- Always remember that as a leader, you are a role model. What you do and how you do it will be constantly observed and evaluated. If you’re not a good example, you will be an object lesson.
- Develop your own personal management style and leadership personality. Don’t be a chameleon. People need to know who you are and what you stand for.
- Know your values, and manage and lead from those values. Having a strong internal gyroscope is the best possible resource for the rigors of leadership.
- Keep your heart open and your mind alert, because going on automatic pilot is the first step toward trouble.
- Management is taking care of systems. Leadership is taking care of people. Both are essential.
- Take good care of your employees and they will take good care of your customers/clients. Do everything you can to treat them well.
- Get out and see what’s going on. Walk the floor. Talk with customers/clients. Stay in touch with line employees, not just your direct reports. Get first-hand information; don’t always rely on interpretations by others.
- Maintain your perspective, on all things, at all times. Always consider the big picture and the long-term.
- Be a talent scout. Look for bright, energetic people that fit the culture of your company. If they are within the organization, nurture them; if they are outside the organization, recruit them.
- Once you’ve found good people, mentor and coach them. Provide support, guidance, direction and encouragement.
- Every leader needs to be skilled at making presentations, both formal and informal, prepared and spontaneous, to an audience of one or many. Learn to express your ideas, thoughts, and opinions clearly and succinctly.
- Be honest about your strengths and weaknesses. Capitalize on your strengths and compensate for your weaknesses by hiring people with complimentary skills. You don’t need to be good at everything, but you do need to sure that someone is.
- Don’t waste time by being disorganized. If it doesn’t come naturally to you, get help from someone who can set up organizational systems and teach you how to use them.
- Take care of your personal health, and the health of your people, your organization, your community, and the environment. None should be sacrificed for another.
- Be as optimistic as you can be. Cynicism is neither inspiring nor useful. Develop an optimistic - yet pragmatic and realistic - outlook.
- Cultivate creativity: your own, your people’s, and the organization’s as a whole. Innovation, problem-solving, and improved morale are just a few of the benefits.
- Have a rational organizational structure based on the precept that “form follows function.” Don’t undermine a logical organizational structure for idiosyncratic considerations.
- Encourage the development of your company culture based on qualities that will sustain it through good times and bad. Develop an organization that has character.
- Meet regularly with the people whom you directly supervise. Don’t assume that “seeing” them regularly is an adequate substitute for dedicated, one-to-one time together.
- Know how to plan and run an effective meeting, and ensure that everyone else does, too. Meetings are a fundamental part of organizational life; they need to be valued in order not to be a waste of time and resources.
- Always know the difference between the means and the ends. There is no substitute for integrity.
- Remember that whatever you do, you are creating your legacy. Make it one that is worthy of your very best.
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