Qualities of a good leader

1. Communication skills

Proper communication is crucial if you want to be successful as a leader. Make sure that communication channels are well established and open between you and the people under your leadership at all times. Communication is an important aspect of how to be a good leader.

Carefully explain what tasks you want accomplished to members of your team. If there is often miscommunication or if you are met with incomprehensive stares every time you try to communicate, you might want to work on your communication skills.

Also, keeping the communication channels open encourages members of your team to express their challenges and concerns to you, helping you build a better working relationship. It is advisable to adopt an open door policy, so that the people under your leadership are free to communicate any issues they might be having with you.

Making yourself available for the people under your leadership to communicate with makes it easy for them to trust and depend on you, encouraging them to work even harder.

2. Honesty

When you are responsible for a group of people, no matter how small or large the number, you must be honest in your dealings with them. The people who are under your leadership are a reflection of you, thus it is important that honesty is a key ethical value you possess. If you are honest, then your team members have no reason or excuse to be dishonest. If you are wondering how to be a good leader, start from being honest.

3. Confidence

There will be hitches along the way, and the only way you can reassure your team is to be confident in spite of it all. If a leader is panicking, what is expected of his followers then?

You must exude confidence at all times if you want to be successful as a leader. People will find it difficult to trust and obey a leader who seems unsure of himself. They will be reassured however, by one who seems to know what he is doing and appears dependable.

If you are running for office for example, you can’t afford to show worry for fear if your ratings are down. If you look resigned and downcast, then members of your campaign team would readily give up and throw in the towel.

Confidence in yourself and in the campaign team however, will further boost their energy and motivation level, inspiring them to work harder. As a leader, there are going to be days where the future of your business or establishment looks bleak and everything seems to be going wrong.

In such instances, it is your duty as a leader is to maintain the team morale by keeping your confidence level up. Your followers look up to you and take cues from you so you must stay confident and calm, your team members will cue in and pick up on that feeling, thus keeping everyone working to achieve the set goals.

4. Delegation

One tree does not make a forest, and followership is important to leadership. Members of your team have to be on board with you for you to be a successful leader. To organize an efficient business or to accomplish a task successfully as a leader, you must be able to understand the strengths of members of your team, and entrust certain tasks to them. Knowing how and when to delegate is how to be a good leader.

There is only so much that you can do, it is impossible to do everything by yourself. It is important that you delegate certain tasks to members of your team suited and capable of handling them. As a leader, delegating tasks to the appropriate departments is an important skill you must have.

Trying to do it all by yourself will only lead to you stretching yourself thin, becoming less productive and show a glaring reducing in the quality of your work. To delegate properly and correctly, you must identify the strengths of the individual members of your team and taking advantage of them.

That way, you can allocate tasks to those who have prowess and/or interests in those tasks. It also shows the people under your leadership that you trust their judgment and believe in them, thus building a strong bond between you as a leader and them as followers.

5. Commitment

There is no greater motivation for a people than seeing the level of dedication and commitment of their leader to a cause. If you want your followers to work hard, be committed and deliver quality in their work, you must be prepared to lead by showing these things.

By proving your commitment to your followers, you will earn their respect, and also instill those same values in them. It is hard to be committed to a cause when the leader himself has a lackluster attitude towards it.

6. Respect

We are all familiar with the saying ‘respect is reciprocal’. If you want to earn the respect of your followers, then you must be willing to respect them first. Respect each person and appreciate their hard work. If you want to know how to be a good leader, learn to respect every single person under your leadership.

Do not abuse them verbally or physically, show respect to them regardless of how much higher above the rung you are. When you respect people under your leadership, they in turn respect you a tenfold.