The world’s greatest leaders often grace the front pages of the newspapers and magazines, news and television programs, as well as biographies of their lives and even movies. No matter their field of expertise, they must transmit their ability to lead. 

If one carefully observes the leaders who represent us, we see that they all have something in common: they share the formula for leadership. 

The most important leadership qualities

There are 7specific traits that make a leader’s greatness. Fortunately,they can be learned and practiced. 

Vision

Leaders have a vision for the future. They have a clear idea of where they are headed and they try to bring their ideas into being. They are also excellent strategizers for planning what they want to achieve. 

This is what primarily separates leaders from those who are suited to be managers or executives. Having a clear vision makes a leader stand out as a special type of person. 

While a manager or executive wants the work to get done, a good leader is able to appeal to his or her employees’ emotions and use them toward the set objective. This is a key leadership qualities for work teams. 

Courage

Courage is an essential leadership quality. In the context of leadership, this means that a leader must have the necessary courage to expose themselves to risk in order to meet objectives. 

This quality is important because every compromise or action in the business environment carries some type of risk.

Integrity

The importance of honesty, both in and outside the company, is fundamental in all that pertains to leadership. Integrity is based onhonesty; in other words, one must always be truthful in each situation and with every person one has contact with in the company environment. 

Humility

Those who are entrusted with leadership are noted for being decisive, yet humble. Humility needn’t be synonymous with weakness or insecurity. Having humility demonstrates such a degree of confidence that one can recognize their weaknesses without feeling threatened by the strength of others.

Humility means having the will to admit when something is wrong and that one doesn’t have all the answers, which brings the leader closer to the rest of the public. 

The general public often rejects perfection in others because they can’t identify with it: the ability to admit one’s mistakes creates a warmer approach. 

Strategic planning

Good leadership doesn’t come out of the blue, and strategic planning is part of its secret. Good leaders must have the ability to look beyond the current context in which they find themselves. In other words, in the business environment, this means the ability to anticipate where trends are heading. 

With a future-oriented perspective, a leader will have an advantage when it comes to the roll out of strategies.

Awareness

Leadership is always based in the needs of the company in the business environment. Leaders focus on results, on what they can achieve for themselves and for other employees, and on what the company can achieve. 

Leaders focus their attention on the company or organization’s strengths, on the things that the company or organization does well to satisfy their clients in the marketplace. 

Leaders also have the ability to make decisions and ensure that the other company employees are focused on the most valuable use of their time, which is essential for a company’s quality performance. 

Cooperation

Lastly, cooperation is the ability to work alongside different members of the organization to achieve success. This is a fundamental leadership quality. 

There exists the so-called “80/20 rule” which states that 20% of an organization’s personnel contribute 80% of the results. 

Therefore, if a leader is able to select the right people and ensure they work well together and with other personnel from other areas of the corporate structure, they would represent 80% of the organization’s performance and success. 

We have described the seven qualities of leadership, but another that is always worth mentioning is passion. Passion is a key characteristic in leadership and in good leaders in particular. The leaders who practice their professions with passion usually end up as the world’s best. Passion goes hand in hand with inspiration.

Do you need help developing your leadership skills to their full advantage? Do not hesitate to contact us to help you choose the best expert for your event.