Thanks to all of you that contributed to my recent poll on Leadership Qualities. The results are in and the top 3 qualities of a leader as voted for by Think Oak! followers are:
1. Great Communicator
Great leaders know how to deliver their message in a way that will create a lasting impact on the people who are listening to them. They are also great listeners. I’ve met many ‘leaders’ that really haven’t grasped the ability to listen effectively. They are too busy thinking about what to say next and they fail to grasp the valuable feedback and ideas that are given to them. Poor communication nearly always results in a poor decision and the end result is a poor outcome.
Powerful, effective leaders know when to talk, when to listen, when to observe – and use all the vital communication skills of leadership well.
2. Visionary
Visionaries who are successful at delivering their goals base their leadership on a new positive future they have created within their mind, as well as a clear sense of direction as to how to get there. A visionary leader is good with actions as well as words, and so can bring his/her vision into being in the world.
Steve Ballmer (Microsoft) once said that shortly after he joined the company, he was having second thoughts. Bill Gates and Gates’ father took Ballmer out to dinner and said he had it all wrong. They said Ballmer saw his role as that of a bean counter for a startup. They had a vision of putting a computer on every desk, in every home. That vision — a computer on every desk, in every home—remains consistent to this day.
3. Integrity
As a leader, you only can prove your integrity by the actions that you take and the decisions that you make. Integrity speaks by itself and it reflects on all your actions and decisions.
I’ll leave you with one of my favourite quotes on Leadership by Peter Drucker:
‘Leadership is not magnetic personality, that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not “making friends and influencing people”, that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.’