9 Essential Qualities of Good Leadership

Why is good leadership important?

Effective leadership motivates people to be confident within their roles and successfully achieve theirs and the companies’ goals while inspiring the people around them. All leaders lead differently, however, to be a good leader there are a few essential qualities that are needed.

1. Vision

At the core of any business is its mission statement. In order for any business to achieve its missions and goals, there needs to be a clear vision from its leaders. Good business leaders maintain a long-term focus on the organisational vision regardless of any short-term distractions.

Great leaders also need to communicate their vision effectively to their team so that their conceptual vision can become a reality.

2. Strategy

Although great leaders surround themselves with great people, they are still responsible for strategic planning and steering the business in the right direction. Successful strategic planning can provide direction during times of uncertainty, challenge, and crisis. This is a skill that we can all learn; however, some people are better at it than others.

3. Communication

Charisma, ability to influence and negotiation skills are just some of the by-products of effective communication. Communication skills are arguably the most important when it comes to being a great leader.

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A leader needs to have strong verbal communication skills, which they can use to inform, motivate, and inspire their audience. As well as speaking and writing, great leaders also need to have active listening skills to understand issues and leverage opportunities.

4. Delegation

Leaders need to prioritise their time; however, it can often seem like they are pulled in a million directions. Delegation in leadership not only helps things get done, but it can also empower employees by giving them greater autonomy. It can also assist in encouraging new leaders to take on tasks without immediate, full responsibility. A Gallup study found that companies led by CEOs who were strong delegators achieved a higher overall growth rate compared to companies whose CEOs delegated less.

5. Decision making

Great leaders understand how to balance emotion with reason to make decisions that positively impact themselves, their employees, customers, and their business.

Decision-making is also highly driven by confidence and belief that the decision being made is the best one. Great leaders bring their skills together to influence the decisions they make.

6. Integrity

Being honest and ethical are key elements of success when it comes to leadership. Leaders lead, and therefore they need to be influential. Great leaders only occur in businesses where they enable good business practises, which stems from being honest and ethical and instilling those beliefs in everyone who works with them.

Having integrity also increases trustworthiness and reliability, which benefits your business internally and externally.

7. Empathy

Empathy is a central component of emotional intelligence, a skill that is in high demand. Empathy is the ability to understand and share how others feel, which can enable empathetic leaders to connect with people at a deeper level.

Empathy and emotional intelligence are very difficult to teach and learn, and therefore having an innate sense of empathy is essential.  

8. Accountability

Accountability means facing the consequences of your actions, including your successes and failures. Ownership, accountability, and responsibility are central to any leadership role. The benefits of accountability include a strong company culture, higher individual performance, and improved business functions, concluding that businesses with accountable leaders perform better than others.

9. Confidence

According to Harvard Business Review, “very few people succeed in business without a degree of confidence”.  After all, it is hard for others to believe in you if you don’t believe in yourself. Great leaders need to have bold visions and confidence that they can achieve. There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance, which great leaders can also balance.

Key Take Aways

• No leader is the same. However, they must have some, if not all, of these essential qualities.

• Only good leadership can drive positive change

• These qualities drive greatness, goal achievement and productive behaviours.