What makes a great leader?

Everyone has their own thoughts and feelings on what makes a great leader. Often, we find that leadership can be a difficult thing to describe and understand but there are often common qualities that we can recognise in leaders we admire or have had the pleasure of working with.

Being a great leader does not mean you have demonstrate all these qualities, however making small yet incremental improvements in certain areas can make a big difference. Over time these can turn into behaviours and habits which impact on your own leadership qualities. So, what are some of the common qualities of great leaders? Here are just a few to get you started…

Courage people need leaders who have the courage to make the difficult decisions and the ability to say no when it might be difficult to do so. A leader who will stay the course, follow the right path even in tough times. People are far more likely to show courage if they see their leader demonstrating it.

Communication isarguably one of the most important leadership qualities. Being able to forge a connection through communications which is real and personal and being able to adapt your communications style to suit the different needs of an audience is truly inspiring.

Generosity leaders don’t take all the credit! They are quick to celebrate other’s successes and offer enthusiastic praise when it is due. They want their people to be successful and achieve their best. It is not all about them!

Humility being able to say they don’t know something, getting their hands dirty and jumping on the tools when the need arises, is the skill of a great leader. They don’t let their position of authority make them feel that they are better than anyone else.  

Self-awareness great leaders have a clear view of their strengths and weaknesses and aren’t afraid to own them. They know where their zone of genius is and have effective strategies to compensate for their weaknesses.

Approachability great leaders are hungry for different viewpoints and opinions, they welcome feedback and challenge. An environment where people are afraid to speak up, offer insight and ask questions leads to a culture of fear and over time this reduces innovation and stifles growth.

Accountability leaders know that it is important to hold themselves and others to account to achieve results. They set targets, they measure results, and they communicate what needs to be done. This builds strength, understanding and a committed team.

Our leadership development programme is accredited for Continuous Professional Development. We help leaders improve their abilities in the above areas, and many more. If you are looking for any support with your leadership skills, or those of your team, get in touch. We would love to help.

As we head into the final month of the year, we inevitably start thinking about setting goals for the year ahead. But when it comes to setting goals for your business, it’s common to get blocked or feel like you’re not doing it right.

• Do you set one overall big stretching goal?
• Do you consider what you realistically can achieve and start there?
• Do you look at what you have achieved this year and add an incremental improvement, such as plus 10%?

For a lot of business leaders, setting goals can feel overwhelming, which often leads to procrastination. Maybe you set out with good intentions to write down some goals and targets to achieve in the year ahead, but they don’t ever make it from your notebook to the boardroom or beyond.

Setting goals in your business helps you to:

• Get focused on what is important
• Make decisions
• Grow and expand to the next level

When we work with business leaders to set goals, we know that the biggest hurdle is usually the over-thinking that goes on inside their heads! Quite often they get hung up on the ‘how’ they are going to achieve something, so much so that they never actually get around to doing it. Get out of your head and set some targets for things you want to achieve – it could be that you want to reach a certain profit target, it might be an increase in your headcount, it could be a goal of on-boarding X amount of new clients – get it down on paper. Think about who you need to involve and share these goals with – are they to be communicated out to the whole business? Are they going to translate into people’s objectives and key results or key performance indicators? Will people be rewarded if they hit them?

Consider whether you are motivated by setting yourself big stretch goals and targets or whether that scares the living daylights out of you. If you are setting goals for other people in your business, it is key to take this into consideration too. Everyone is different and only you will know whether it is going to motivate you and others or freeze people into inaction and fear of failure.

You want to get clear on the intention behind your goals and then communicate that – set the expectations for what success looks like and then drill into what you and your people need to make these goals a reality. For instance, if it is on-boarding more clients, do you have a sales and marketing strategy and budget to support this?

Have you got the right mindset to set your business goals, or do you need to seek some external advice? If your business has reached a plateau in certain years, it could be that you would benefit from hiring someone who can help you with a different perspective and viewpoint. The biggest challenge for people in leadership roles, or business owners, is maintaining a growth mindset – particularly when faced with external forces such as the current cost of living crisis. Having someone to turn to who can help you to explore different ways of looking at things in your business can often be a catalyst for growth and change.

Finally, just like puppies aren’t just for Christmas, goal setting in your business doesn’t have to just be an annual event. You can start every month, week or even day with a simple goal setting exercise – ask yourself what are the top three things you want to achieve?

Science has shown that the process of writing your goals makes you more inclined to achieve them – especially if you have other people in your business helping you. So what are you waiting for? Grab that pen and paper or open up a blank document and get writing!

And if you would like some support setting goals for your business, get in touch – we would love to help! Email: [email protected]