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In developing a Leadership Qualities List, I’d have to begin with what I believe to be the absolute critical initial quality of a Leader:

• Know yourself, be comfortable “in your own skin”; and basically, don’t even begin to think about foisting yourself on unfortunate subordinates unless you know that you have a fairly healthy Self-esteem! With a healthy self-esteem, you’ll be able to weigh which decisions to make purely on the facts, not in terms of “How does this make me look?” You’ll make your decisions based on facts, and you’ll evaluate the qualities of those decisions, also on facts. You’ll be comfortable in knowing that the impact of your decisions will be evaluated; not your self-worth. You’ll be a whole lot easier of a guy – or gal – to have to deal with!

• Next, I believe that Honesty, coupled with forthrightness, is hugely important for a leader to be effective; as the greatest single quality that inspires people to follow a leader, is trust. They don’t demand perfection, only that you’ll “be real”, and that they can believe that you’ll say what you mean and mean what you say. If they catch you in a lie, then you’ll lose the self-directed, creative followers needed to make you a successful leader!

• Situational Awareness comes next; meaning your ability to “read people” and to size-up a situation. Knowing how to understand Body Language, in addition to just listening to what people say, will give you the ability to see how people are feeling in a given situation; as well as how they are responding to what you’re saying. You must learn how to “take the temperature” of your subordinates!

• Fairness is also very important to subordinates. In both the distribution of work, as well as the “sometimes necessary” doling-out of discipline; if people see that you consistently try to “do the right thing”; then you’re on your way to earning their whole hearted support and participation in helping your organization – and you – become successful!

• To be an effective leader, you’ve also got to be able to analyze facts – have you noticed that this is the first quality that isn’t a people-person one? The ability to understand what the facts are telling you – in terms of the decision needed – either in terms of facts gathered before making a decision (known as research), or facts gathered after your decision, to assess how well your decision has addressed the problem (here known as Metrics) – is an absolutely critical ability of a successful leader.

• Mostly, as a leader, you do the leading; but sometimes you must allow yourself to “be led”; when it’s overwhelmingly evident that “your people” very much want to go in a particular direction! As you develop your situational skills, you’ll recognize those few situations; but it’s very important – if it’s not severely detrimental to the organization – to recognize those few opportunities, to say, “That’s what you want…..well, why not!” When you do that, you endear yourself to your subordinates, earning incredible loyalty!