Leadership

Leadership qualities are one of the most important things an aspiring leader can get. Obviously a leader must have skills and competency in the field where they want to work, but their character determines whether or not they will be able to get anyone to follow them. Simply being competent doesn’t make people want to follow you. Qualities are more difficult to acquire than skill because they have to do with one’s character–it touches on who you are as a person.  This doesn’t mean that it can’t be learned, but it is very different than trying to learn chemistry or accounting.

Most of our character was learned early on in life.  In fact, it can often be traced back to what our parents taught us at a young age.  You can change your character, but you will be working against years of ingrained behavior and early childhood training. It is worth it, but it is difficult.

One of the more effective ways to cultivate specific character traits is to follow Benjamin Franklin’s example.  He had a note book with a list of all the qualities he valued.  Every evening, he would note which traits he succeeded in displaying and which ones he failed.  Then he would journal some thought son his success or failure. This approach is brilliant because it forces you to continually evaluate your progress and rate your success.  The journal aspect forces you to say specifically what worked well and what was a failure and lay out a course of action to improve the areas where you fell short. (This type of improvement process using a journal is valuable in a number of different self education pursuits.)

Of all the potential qualities of a leader, here are the top five.  These are the traits that people say they look for in their leaders, so they should correspond to how likely it is that someone will follow you:

• Intelligent
• Competent
• Forward-looking
• Honest
• Inspiring

Intentional effort into displaying these qualities in your professional life will help you become the type of leader that people want to follow. Displaying the opposite of these leadership qualities will help make sure that no one wants to follow you.