Four Traits Every Leader Must Have
- Posted on September 21, 2010
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My friend Brad Lomenick had a great post yesterday at his blog about four traits that every leader should have. These come from the book "The Leadership Challenge" by James Kouzes and Barry Posner. See what you think:
1. HONESTY- telling the truth. Your team needs to believe you are worthy of their trust. Knowing in your heart that you truly believe what you are saying, and they can believe it too.
2. FORWARD-LOOKING- having a sense of direction and concern for the future of the organization. You must know where you are going if you expect others to willingly join you on the journey. People won’t willingly follow you until they can see how they share in the future you envision.
3. INSPIRING- people on your team expect you to be positive, upbeat, and optimistic. Your energy signals your personal level of commitment. Sharing enthusiasm, excitement, and energy. You have to give your team reason to believe that tomorrow will be even better than today.
4. COMPETENT- your ability to get things done. People have to believe you know what you’re talking about and you know what you’re doing. Competence inspires confidence in the team that you’ll be able to guide the enterprise in the direction it needs to go.
Are there other ESSENTIAL traits that you think a leader must have? What would you add?
Which one is the most important? (IS one more important than another).
It seems to me that if you stick at even one of these... it could be a deal breaker. Maybe you're inspiring and competent, and you have a great vision for the future; but you're not honest. You're not my leader.
Or if you're honest, inspiring and competent; but you don't look to what could be in the future. Also... not what I'm looking for.
Maybe you're as honest as can be, inspiring, and forward looking; but you're as competent as a potato. Again, deal breaker.
I guess that's what the title of this post actually implies... every leader MUST HAVE these four attributes.
Do you agree?
Todd
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