Leadership can be defined as a process whereby an individual influences a group of people to achieve a common goal. For business owners, good leadership is beneficial because you can improve productivity and communication, thus increasing profits. The 15 qualities of a good leader can be developed over time and not only positively transform your life, but the lives of those you come into contact with. In this blog, we’ll be highlighting these 15 qualities of a good leader.
What is Leadership?
Leadership can be defined in many ways and looks different to various people, but there is a general consensus that good leadership can transcend lives and lead to successful outcomes.
Forbes defines leadership as a process of social influence that boosts the efforts of others in pursuit of a common goal.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary explains leadership as the capacity to lead. Similarly, The Oxford Dictionary describes leadership as leading a group of people or a business.
According to Northhouse, author of Leadership: Theory & Practice, leadership is defined here as, “a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal”.
Why Does Good Leadership Matter?
Good leadership is developed over time and is important for several reasons. Most notably, good leadership matters because it fosters community, develops trust, and ultimately leads to improved and desired outcomes. A leader’s ability to exert influence in a manner that is productive and considerate requires good leadership. It also keeps your team and business thriving.
3 Benefits of Good Leadership for Business Owners
There are numerous benefits of good leadership for business owners. The top three benefits highlighted here as follows:
- a successfully managed team
- reduced stress overall
- improved productivity
Ultimately, these three benefits can lead to increased revenue, which is what all business owners strive for.
15 Qualities of a Good Leader
1. Accountable
Accountability is a quality that you must embody to be a good leader. By being an accountable leader, you take responsibility for your actions, the actions of your team, and meet key deadlines.
When you hold yourself to a high standard those around you look up to you and embody your behaviors. Not only does your business benefit from holding yourself accountable, but your team does as well.
Accountability is hands down a predictor for effective and successful leadership.
2. Confident
Confidence is a principal quality that helps you to be a good leader by believing in your ability to influence others and change the world. Despite when obstacles present themselves, your confidence keeps you remaining anchored and self-assured that the situation will work out.
As a confident leader, you express appreciation and gratitude for your team and admit when you are wrong. You also choose your words carefully and know talking too much can be perceived as lacking confidence or being too comfortable.
3. Cultural Competence
Cultural competence is a quality you want to possess in a rapidly diversifying society. By being culturally competent, you put an emphasis on respecting and understanding the cultural needs of diverse groups in order to be inclusive and get to know them as a person.
A good leader promotes the inclusion and respect of all members in their team to improve relationships and build a positive work environment.
Not only that but, a culturally competent leader works to understand the individual needs of their diverse clients and avoid cookie cutter approaches and stereotypes.
4. Emotionally Intelligent
By being an emotionally intelligent leader, you can control your emotions and reactivity, as well as shift your emotions and the emotions of others to be positive. Additionally, you respond appropriately and with intention to adversity.
This is a good quality to possess because it improves your ability to successfully manage your team, be proactive instead of reactive when obstacles prevail, and effectively communicate. You can advance your career and business by improving your emotional intelligence.
5. Empathetic
As an empathetic leader, you must ensure your team is being listened to, prioritized, and understood. Empathy can be coined as the ability to know where someone is coming from and sharing those emotions with them.
By being able to step into a teammate’s point of view and empathize with them, you demonstrate you truly care about their wellbeing. You become someone they can trust and in turn they show up more for you whether that be in terms of productivity or loyalty.
6. Ethical
To be a good leader, you have to be ethical. This is a mandatory quality for good leadership because you cannot make decisions or act in ways that can harm others.
By being ethical you can encourage those around you to behave ethically as well. In turn, a healthier work environment and boosted team performance can occur.
Alternatively, unethical behaviors can damage your reputation and the reputation of your business making it difficult to trust you and your services.
7. Flexible
If you want to be a good leader, flexibility is undoubtable a salient quality to adopt. The reason being is its significance in being able to work with a wide spectrum of people and adapting to change when necessary.
In business, change is bound to present itself in more ways than one, and therefore, it is crucial to be flexible in order to thrive.
Now more than ever, with remote work preferred, it is valuable to be flexible with your team and allow them flexibility in their schedules for work-life balance. They in-turn are more willing to make sacrifices for you when you make sacrifices for them.
8. Integrity
Integrity is a meaningful quality for a good leader because it requires you to be reliable, honest, and trustworthy. You hold good intentions and do not act in unethical ways that can damage your business or diminish trust in services.
It’s always doing the right thing in public and private. In doing so, you commit your team to success, increase profits, and stand up for what you believe in.
9. Motivational
A good leader is motivational because it promotes good morale and leads to improved teamwork. By being motivational, you encourage autonomy, recognize hard work, and offer your support in the face of challenges and concerns. Motivated leaders develop motivated, stronger teams.
10. Optimistic
Optimism is known as maintaining positivity even in the face of hardship. As a good leader, you want to possess this quality because managing a business can come with ebbs and flows and you want to be able to remain cool, calm, and collective so that things will work out.
Optimism fosters resilience and promotes a positive work environment. Those who are optimistic are more successful in achieving goals because they take unpleasant circumstances and find a way to still excel.
11. Patient
By demonstrating patience, you instill trust and confidence in your team. Not only that but patience is essential to taking in the moment and processing unfavorable circumstances. Instead of reacting with emotion, it takes patience to think from a place of maturity and act with emotional intelligence.
By further exhibiting patience you gain respect from others. A good leader can maintain composure and think quickly on their toes to get desired outcomes.
12. Resourceful
Resourcefulness is essential to being a good leader. Owning a business comes with constant change and growth, which is why finding clever ways to overcome barriers is a must.
When adversity arrives, you know how to overcome such obstacles by using the skills and tools at your disposal. A major part of being resourceful is also being resilient.
13. Self-Awareness
As a good leader, you have to be self-aware. Self-awareness is the ability to recognize and interpret how your actions and thoughts influence negatively or positively those around you.
If you’re a self-aware leader, you are able to pivot and change how you do things in your organization for the betterment of your team and business success. You need to bring out the best in yourself in order to bring out the best in those that work for and with you.
14. Self-Disciplined
To be a good leader is to be self-disciplined. When you are self-disciplined you bring structure and consistency to your business. You can manage your time well, break down long-term goals into short-term goals, and reach excellence.
Further, you are persistent in your efforts to communicate clearly, take responsibility for your actions, and prioritize tasks.
15. Visionary
A necessary quality to be a good leader as a business owner is to be visionary. Being able to look long-term and not only day-to-day allows you to keep your team motivated with the end goal in mind.
It also helps in the creative process when new systems and/or services must be implemented and clearly communicated to the team. When you’re visionary, your proactive and creative thinking produces ideas that are unheard of and optimizes growth.
3 Ways to Develop these 15 Qualities of a Good Leader
Become More Flexible
- Get into the habit of creating multiple plans
- Understand how you react to change
- Challenge yourself to participate in new situations
Improve Your Self-Discipline
- Master time-management by trying time-blocking
- Remove distractions
- Focus on what you can control
Build Your Emotional Intelligence
- Be open-minded
- Learn to recognize and acknowledge the emotions of you and others
- Learn how to manage stress
The 15 qualities of a good leader highlighted above can be developed over time and can lead to a successfully managed team, increased revenue, and improved communication. Anyone can develop these 15 qualities of a good leader above with consistent practice, drive, and determination.
Additional Reading:
- Why Self-Discipline is Important for Writers – The Dietitian Editor
- 6 Characteristics of Entrepreneurs: Dietitian Writers – The Dietitian Editor
- 9 Powerful Ways To Cultivate Extreme Self-Discipline
- How to Increase Self-Awareness: 16 Activities & Tools
- How to Increase Empathy in Leadership
- What is Cultural Competence and How to Develop It?
- 15 Useful Books for Time Management – The Dietitian Editor
- 30+ Best Books for Female Entrepreneurs – The Dietitian Editor
- 150+ Powerful Affirmations for Writers – The Dietitian Editor
- 15+ September Blog Post Ideas for Dietitians – The Dietitian Editor
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