10 leadership qualities to make a difference

Apr 26, 20219 min read

Simon Sinek said “Leadership is a skill, a learnable, practicable skill, and the best leaders don’t consider themselves experts – they consider themselves students. “

If you consistently live and practice the following leadership qualities, you will become a stronger leader and create a healthier, happier working environment for your team.

Leadership has been the subject of countless books and yet, so many tend to forget or ignore what it takes to be a true leader. Here are 10 leadership qualities to make a difference, not only in your lives but in the lives of the people who are devoting their time and energy to you.

10 leadership qualities

1. PURPOSE

“I often say that your passion is for you and your purpose is for others. So when you use your passion in the service of others, it becomes your purpose,” Jay Shetty

In his book “Start with Why”, Simon Sinek explains that strong leaders don’t manipulate, they inspire. Inspiration starts with clearly articulating WHY your company, team or mission exists. A leader inspires people to do the things that inspire them, that makes them get up every day to do something they love.

The company I work for owns a power plant. Our vision, our WHY, is “to make reliable electrical power”. The way I explain this vision is to invite people to visualize somebody very close to them on a respirator machine in a hospital. This is why we need reliable electrical power, this is why we get up in the morning and do what we have to do. Every team should have a mission that inspires them to get up in the morning.

The leader’s job is to remind everyone WHY we do what we do! For your vision to be inspiring, it has to challenge the status quo and the leader should encourage teams to welcome new ideas, try different approaches, make mistakes and learn from them.

2. INTEGRITY

“As the Zen Buddhist saying goes, how you do anything is how you do everything.”

Integrity is about HOW we do what we do, it’s about thinking, deciding and acting in line with our values. Integrity means always doing the right thing, even when nobody is watching.

Having a common set of values is an important factor to guide the team’s day to day decisions, to help them HOW to respond and to act.

A corporate value of integrity could mean: demonstrating honesty, trust, mutual respect. Integrity in your personal life might mean always telling the truth, keeping promises and delivering on your commitments.

Core values are principles and beliefs that guide an organization’s internal conduct as well as its relationship with the external world. As a leader, you don’t define the team values by yourself, and you coach the team to formulate the inherent values which are already present, aligning them to support your purpose.

3. ENERGY

“The energy of the mind is the essence of life.” – Aristotle

In his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, Dr Covey explains that “the single most powerful investment we can ever make in life – investment in ourselves, in the only instrument we have with which to deal with life and to contribute. We are the instruments of our own performance, and to be effective, we need to recognize the importance of taking time regularly to sharpen the saw in all four ways” (meaning physical, social/emotional, spiritual and mental).

Only when we are fully energized do we become capable of being the best versions of ourselves, act with integrity and discipline, and strive towards our purpose in a positive mindset. Being able to project enthusiasm and motivation demands much energy from a leader.

Energy drives a leader to take bold decisions, taking the courage to try on new challenges and convince his team that anything is possible.

4. CARING

“Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care”. Theodore Roosevelt

Leaders are not responsible for the customer or the job, they are responsible for the people who are responsible for the customer and the job.

Leadership is about taking responsibility for lives and not numbers. Managers look after numbers and results, leaders look after their people.

Just as every doctor learned the importance of sterilizing his instruments, so too must every leader of every team do the little things necessary to protect their people. Just like a good parent checks in with their kid on a regular basis, a leader should regularly check in with his employees. Making sure they feel fulfilled and secure, trusted and appreciated.

As explained by Simon Sinek in his book “Leaders Eat Last”, the most senior members in the Marine Corps always receive their meal last. This indicates that only once they can put their own needs last, they can say that they’ve earned their status as leaders. True leaders prioritize the needs of the group over their own, ensuring the group as a whole sign of progress.

Instead of seeking to control their team, true leaders focus on building authentic, mutually beneficial relationships. If you’re trying to lead without the need for authority, start by simply getting to know your people, building rapport. Show them you care about their feelings, careers and interests. Be generous and think about how you can serve their needs within the boundaries of your role and your company.

5. EMPATHY

“Empathy is simply listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating that incredibly healing message of you’re not alone.” Brene Brown

In one of the best speeches ever on TED talk, Simon Sinek explains that there are two things great leaders need to have: empathy and perspective. Empathy is being concerned about the human being, not just their output. Relating to your people, helping them to be at their natural best, understanding what they are going through, asking how their day is and actually caring about the answer, this is what the practice of empathy is all about.

Being a leader means having people that choose to follow you.

6. INFINITE MINDSET

“Synergy is better than my way or your way. It’s our way.” - Stephen Covey

Business leaders need to have an infinite mindset because the business world is not a game with a fixed start and end, it’s an infinite game where the goal is to stay in the game as long as possible. This means being focused on long term goals like quality, innovation and creativity, so people will continue to want your product or service.

Having an infinite mindset also means thinking win-win.

Dr Covey in his book “The 3rd Alternative”, promotes synergy as a win-win strategy that is superior to compromise or arbitration in resolving conflicts, using the 3rd alternative question: What is a solution to this problem that is better than each party might come up with? The ability to look at a problem from all perspectives and to find win-win solutions for all concerned is a crucial leadership quality.

7. COMMUNICATION

“Listen with the intent to understand, not the intent to reply.” - Stephen Covey

Keith Ferrazzi describes 3 golden rules to turn every employee into a change leader in his book Leading Without Authority: radical inclusion (giving a voice to a wide range of people in the organization to collect fresh ideas), bold input (seek and welcome candid feedback from as many people in the team as possible, requiring a bold, courageous attitude from those receiving the feedback) and agility (meet quickly and regularly and be prepared to make fast, impactful decisions).

The key to effective communication is listening and authentic understanding of another person.

Most people listen to while preparing to reply or with an intent to manipulate or to control. Empathic listening implicates a sincere intent to really understand, to see things from the other person’s perspective, to hear the words but also to read the body language and feel the message in your heart.

It’s one of the greatest signs of respect you can give to another person. It’s risky because it means you open yourself to be influenced, to be vulnerable. However, being influenceable is the key to influencing others, which is what leadership is all about.

Active listening requires you to face the speaker directly (heart faced towards his heart), to avoid any interruption and even pause shortly before replying, to question for clarification and to repeat the other’s words in your own words.

To deliver a message, true leaders will engage in nonviolent communication (NVC).

The first step in NVC is observations and feelings (“the report is two days late, and I feel concerned that this will upset our customer”).

The next step is to express needs and requests (“I need a satisfied customer. Would you be able to finish this report later today, please?”). Before expressing your feelings and needs, it’s important to connect with your true feelings but also to be empathic toward the other person.

Finally, make sure your request doesn’t sound like a demand (meaning, you have to be ready to accept no for an answer).

Good communication provides balanced praise, gratitude, clear guidance and limits rumours.

“The reason why we have two ears and only one mouth is so we might listen more and talk less.” (Zeno)

8. EMPOWERMENT

“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant. “Max De Pree

Part of a leader’s job is to make sure that everyone on the team knows how essential their job is to the success of the operation. When someone shows signs of demotivation or lack of engagement, it’s often because no one has taken time to explain how essential their role is.

The leader sets the goals and objectives, but the team should come up with the plan, taking ownership in the process. Even if the plan is not perfect, it still doesn’t mean that the leader should impose his ideas. If the plan is more than 70% as effective as the leader’s, he should let them go ahead. If it’s less, he should ask open questions that will allow the team to see the problem and make the right adjustments. Always give responsibilities rather than tasks.

Leaders should refrain from solving every problem and rather practice a humbled, empowering approach, being mindful of their impulse to be the go-to problem solver for the team. Instead, asking leading questions that can steer the team towards solving their problems will be more helpful and rewarding. If you want trust and respect as a leader, you have to give trust and respect to your colleagues.

9. TRUST

“A team is not a group of people that work together. A team is a group of people that trust each other.” – Simon Sinek

Trust is the foundation of strong relationships. Without trust, any relationship is weak. But trust has to be earned. It is not given. Trust is a feeling – and the trust equation is the best explanation that I have seen, which explains this feeling. If you understand this equation, you can use it to help drive your decision-making.

The trust equation:

- Creditability: know what you are talking about;

- Reliability: delivering on promises;

- Intimacy: the ability to keep something confidential and build rapport;

- Self-orientation: Caring about your own needs, helping to get something out of it

Trust in business requires good scores across the board. Leadership requires us to live these values by example. If we do, they percolate through the organization resulting in a ‘trusted company or brand’. This builds long-term success.

10. DISCIPLINE

“The ability to discipline yourself to delay gratification in the short term in order to enjoy greater rewards in the long term is the indispensable prerequisite for success.” Maxwell Maltz

This morning I woke up at 4:45, got out of bed, went to the gym, meditated and wrote my daily goals in a journal. Why? It seems to make no immediate sense. My arms were burning and sore. I didn’t see any immediate results, other than a feeling of energy. Discipline is nothing else than a fancy word for faith. You show up, and you don’t see results. Yet. But you have faith that over time you will. Your team follow your actions, they always speak louder than words.

As a leader, you cannot expect your team to show discipline and believe in the long term if your actions show them a lack of direction and trust.

Discipline is contagious.

Discipline is a muscle. When you develop the disciplines of leadership excellence, you will become a more powerful and resourceful leader, get more done, have greater self-confidence and succeed at higher levels in everything you attempt. Once your discipline muscle gets stronger, you will be able to be more demanding on yourself, willing to go the extra mile. When you’re more demanding on yourself, you’re in a better position to motivate others to be more demanding on them. You will be able to drive to do their very best.

Self-discipline is about pushing yourself to do what you should do when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not. It’s about putting the dopamine stimulating notifications on your smartphone on mute and focusing on writing the important letter. It’s the intrinsic motivation to do the important things that lead to continuous improvement consistently.

Conclusion

Leading is an art but practising qualities such as sharing an inspiring purpose, integrity, energy, showing empathy, caring, searching win-wins in an infinite mindset, empathic communication, empowering teams, building trust and showing discipline will take you a long way towards reaching long-term goals together with an engaged group of people.

In good times and bad, your leadership role is all about the success and well-being of your team, not about exercising your power. Always listen to your team members and choose your words carefully, practising clear and honest communication. By remaining calm and collected, you’ll be setting an example for everyone.