What Makes A Good Leader?

All good leaders possess the same or similar traits and behaviours, such as passion, authenticity and a grand vision, to name a few. Now, possessing these traits or behaviours doesn't guarantee success - but they do go a long way towards making success more inevitable.

There are some people who think many of these leadership traits are inborn, and that may be the case in certain instances. Yet, we know that leadership behaviours can be acquired by practicing and retrospectively evaluating the outcomes of each exposure to leadership situations. 

Basically, most of leadership comes from living. In the rest of this article, we will focus on defining what a good leader is and the type of leadership that is required in order for companies to be successful and sustain themselves over time.

1. Good leaders begin with who they are inside and are primarily defined by what they do, not by the role they have been assigned. 
   
   This is important because leadership is about role modeling and accomplishment, not position assignment. Common personality traits of good leaders are:
   
   
   • Trustworthy
   • Confident
   • Intuitive
   • Visionary
   • Risk tolerant
   • Flexible
   • Proactive
   • Empathetic
   • Able to develop good relationships
   • Can be charismatic
   • High in emotional intelligence

   Many of these characteristics can be inborn. Yet, good leaders are also able to develop supporting behaviours that can offset the absence of some of these traits.

2. A good leader is respected for the consistency of their behaviours from day to day. 
   
   They gain their employee's trust by doing what they say they will do, when they say they will do it. Good leaders are:
   
   
   • Able to look at the organisation strategically in order to set its vision, mission, goals and objectives
   • Effective at communicating these aspects so that others can fully understand their value
   • Effective at communicating their values
   • A guide to their subordinates in setting their own goals - and hold them accountable
   • Able to influence and motivate their staff to higher levels of performance
   • Adept at changing these methods depending on the person, the task at hand and the way the subordinate responds to the leader

Lastly, the quality of the relationship effective leaders have with their subordinates will help determine how much they are able to influence and motivate them, and how willing the follower is to perform up to the leader's expectations. 

1. Successful leaders earn the respect and trust of their followers by:
   
   
   • Getting to know their subordinates and learn what motivates each individual
   • Always helping them to achieve their goals
   • Knowing how to use the appropriate reward and consequence systems, depending on the subordinate and the outcomes required
   • Using their organisational resources to influence the organisational culture and ultimately, the receptiveness of the group (employees, customers, stakeholders) they are trying to influence
2. As the leader earns respect, trust and ultimately is able to influence their subordinates, the followers will naturally begin to buy into the leader's vision. When subordinates buy into the leader's vision:
   
   
   • They work harder and longer to achieve their shared goals
   • They evidence an increased level of engagement and commitment

These are the things that enable good leaders to become great leaders. Great leaders recognise that the key to their success rests with the quality of the commitment of their followers.

There are good leaders who have had leadership "thrust" upon them - and succeeded - and others whilst it was thought would be good - that ultimately fail. These leaders may or may not have some of the inborn leadership traits we have mentioned. 

However, their success is probably the result of a couple of things:

1. They have offset their lack of inborn leadership traits by learning and practicing leadership behaviours
2. The situation they are in will dictate whether or not they are successful - i.e. does the leader employ the right resources at the right time, the right management support, the right staff, etc. 

To promote good leaders who can become great:

• Involve them in training and executive coaching programs
• Help them participate in real-world simulations
• Assign mentors to them
• Have them - and help them - develop their self-awareness, other awareness, self image, personal motivation, and desire to assist others in becoming successful

Remember - no good or great leader was ever good or great without great followers!