Bloganuary 19
What makes a good leader?
- Decisiveness
- Trustworthiness
- Empowerment of others
- Clear communication
- and the dreaded word of “resilience”
I thought about this prompt and my first thought was a good leader is someone who is continuing to learn and demonstrates transparency about the learning. Someone who is able to make quality decisions based upon their current knowledge and tools, but is willing to do better when they know better. And then I borrowed the Google machine and after reading through a few iterations of .orgs answering this question, I decided I liked Arden University’s list the best.
Leadership Qualities Summary:
- Decisiveness: A key leadership trait is the ability to make informed decisions swiftly and confidently, especially under pressure. Leaders should be able to justify their decisions and remain open to reassessing them as new information becomes available. Seeking advice is acceptable but the final decision rests with the leader.
- Trustworthiness: Leaders must establish trust early on, not by becoming friends with their team, but by exhibiting credibility, transparency, and fairness. Building trust involves listening without judgment, being honest, and making trust a visible priority within the team or organization.
- Empowerment of Others: Effective leaders trust their team members’ expertise and empower them to take on responsibilities that foster professional growth. Delegating tasks is a sign of a leader’s faith in their employees’ abilities.
- Clear Communication: Articulating a vision and the steps to achieve it in understandable terms is crucial. Communication should be used to align team goals, motivate, and inspire employees to utilize their potential for personal and organizational benefit.
- Resilience: Great leaders persevere through adversity and don’t linger on failures. Instead, they learn from setbacks and use these insights to inform future strategies, maintaining focus on long-term goals.
