9 Essential Qualities of Good Leadership

Why is good leadership important?

Effective leadership motivates people to be confident in their roles and successfully achieve their and the company’s 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. For any business to achieve its missions and goals, its leaders need to have a clear vision. 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 to make their conceptual vision 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 uncertainty, challenge, and crisis. We can all learn this skill; 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, which is arguably the most important skill for a great leader.

   8 Tips to improve your communication at work

   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 must also have active listening skills to understand issues and leverage opportunities.

4. Delegation

   Leaders must 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 encourage 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 than 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 is the best. Great leaders combine their skills to influence their decisions.

6. Integrity

   Being honest and ethical are key elements of success in leadership. Leaders lead, and therefore, they need to be influential. Great leaders only occur in businesses where they enable good business practises, which stem 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 and a highly demanded skill. It 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 complicated to teach and learn, so having an innate sense of empathy is essential. 

8. Accountability

   Accountability means facing your actions' consequences, including 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.