Posted on by Max Herrera

15 Qualities of Successful Leaders

In this post we will highlight the qualities of successful leaders. As I’ve commented previously in The 7 Attributes of Leadership, when I have to evaluate someone for hiring, I always try to identify leadership qualities, because people with such traits perform and coordinate a lot better than simple people. In short, what I look for is people with potential, people who is hungry for more, people able to grow and evolve. And these people can be identified because they have the traits or characteristics of leaders. Besides, as time goes by, these traits will also strengthen the leader’s role in the company. Therefore, we have to know that a successful leader is…

1) A hard worker: Leaders must show a strong commitment to work, they should lead by example, work hard (and harder and hardest), and verify that their groups stay focused on the proper tasks and are always moving towards the business’ goals. Leading by example is especially important: leaders can’t request further commitment from their groups unless they lead by example. However, leading by example doesn’t mean that leaders should end up micromanaging and usurping their teams’ tasks. Working hard is the best way to lead by example, but everyone in the organization must work on their level, according to their responsibilities. And you, as a leader, must distribute tasks in a proper fashion. On the other hand, a leader should be able to live a balanced life, to reconcile his professional career with other roles (familiar, social, etc.) Successful leaders must demonstrate to their employees that it is perfectly possible to harmonize a very dedicated professional attitude with a rich private life. The excitement, the energy, the illusion that requires a successful leadership stems only from a rich, entertaining and varied personal lifestyle. In summary, a successful leader is a person who knows how to enjoy life’s pleasures.

Leadership qualities

2) Persevering: True leaders set realistic goals. A realistic goal is accessible and can be achieved in a reasonable time span. Leaders should avoid dispersing their energy: they should focus all of their energy on two or three well-defined and realistic goals. Successful leaders know that higher goals might be difficult to achieve in a short time span, and therefore, they lead their team to advance little by little, step by step, towards the great goal. True leaders know that success stems from sustained effort. Obstacles faced by organizations are numerous: only perseverance will allow to succeed in the long run. Therefore, leaders must also promote resilience within the organization. Resilience and perseverance are intertwined: the idea is to keep going further, no matter the adversities (sometimes, of course, we have to alter our approaches, but the idea is to never give up and go little by little, conquering small goals in each step.)

Success will never be a big step in the future; success is a small step taken just now (Jonatan Mårtensson.)

3) Flexible: Energy flows continually, systems fight against entropy, everything changes. Today’s facts may turn useless tomorrow. Leaders have to be aware of the dynamics of energy and systems around them. Flexibility means adaptation, and adaptation, in turn, means intelligence. Furthermore, employees have their own criteria and sometimes their criteria might be more accurate than the leader’s. Those leaders who are always entrenched in their opinions are doomed to fail, and convey an aura of arrogance that will lose them the sympathy of their groups. Real leaders are not afraid to change their point of view or accept the opinion of a subordinate: that’s no sign of weakness. On the contrary, it would project an image of an open person… flexible leaders will increase their prestige among employees. In this case, though, balance is also a key issue. Being flexible does not mean you will always change your point of view to match your subordinates’ opinion. Being flexible means to listen. Successful leaders listen to everybody, then make a decision. Summarizing, flexibility amounts to sensing your environment (listening, observing, reading), followed by a proper adaptation.

4) Self-controlled: Leaders are the referents of an organization, and as such they should be able to control their emotions, especially in difficult times. Successful leaders must appeal to their resilience, in order to endure and overcome negative events (if leaders fall, the entire organization will likely collapse.) The leader has to be strong, capable of displaying and conveying serenity and tranquility in the hardest times. Remember that leaders largely determine the mood of an organization, and if the leader is optimistic, lively, and energetic, the organization will be in the mood to overcome adversities. If, however, the leader is pessimistic or depressed (and he shows his gloomy mood), the organization will sink. Successful leaders learn (through experience) how to “bounce back” and cope with stress and adversity. This is a skill which should be honed from early stages, and valued as gold.

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Posted on by Max Herrera

At the core of Leadership

Being a leader and enacting the virtues of leadership implies, mandatorily, that we have achieved success. The converse, however, is not necessarily true: reaching success does not mean we are leaders. Success is tantamount to conquering our goals. In other words, success means we have crossed the goal line.

Leadership can be defined as the will to control processes and events, to understand what is required to focus all of the involved activities in a specific direction, and to yield the power to complete tasks and distribute resources, properly harnessing and directing the abilities of each person involved in the project. Summarizing, leadership is about control, focus, and also about effective management of people and resources.

There are two kinds of leaders:

  1. Nominal Leaders: The main goal of nominal leaders is to establish, between her organization and its environment, a set of relations which allow the perfect execution of a project’s tasks. A nominal leader defines such tasks and monitors them to verify they are carried out entirely.
  2. Concrete Leaders: This kind of leader expresses and represents the perspectives of her group. It might happen that the nominal leader will not properly represent or understand the emotions of her people, and under such circumstances, a concrete leader could emerge and oppose the inpetitude of the nominal leader (and even replacing her.)

This tell us a very important fact: groups follow the person which is able to quickly and clearly connect with their emotions. Leadership is, then, also an emotional journey.

Some leaders are more effective managing small groups, instead of huge organizations. Other leaders are able to inspire great masses, but are little respected by their immediate collaborators. And there is a third group of leaders, the best leaders, whose followers are everyone: masses and close collaborators.

Regardless of the cognoscitive field a leader adresses, they have several interesting characteristic which distinguish them from everybody else. The 3 most visible characteristics of leaders are:

  1. They have achieved incredible success in their work and in their private lives; it’s often said about them that they have the Midas touch.
  2. They seem to own an unlimited luck.
  3. They are rich, and they are getting richer (even right now).

There exists a wrong belief about leadership being a hereditary, genetic issue. And some people think being a successful, real leader is a matter of luck. Nothing further from the truth. Leadership has to be built, has to be shaped, and (very important) has to be mantained. And there’s always room for improvement.

All of we are able to achieve professional success. But we have to study, we have to observe, we have to learn which are the traits of leaders and the keys for success. Obviously, success can be achieved, taught and learnt: we have to reshape a set of our behaviors, and suit them to the profile of a successful person. We have previously touched upon 3 visible traits of leaders. Now it’s time to delve into this point. And now we’ll discuss the two key traits of leaders:

Motivation

Leaders are like tireless motivation machines. Leaders are continuosly motivating themselves, and they renew their motivations easily, almost effortlessly. Leaders communicate and convey their motivation to the people around them. Leader are always motivated, and always motivating their people.

Perseverance

And motivation is the fuel for the kernel of success: perseverance. They are entrepeneurs and innovators. Generally, successful people have faced harsh beginnings. What distinguishes them is their faith in what they are doing, in what they are pursuing. Leaders believe. Leaders insist in their projects, goals and tasks. They set realistic tasks, and they fight over and over until fully completing each one of such tasks. How many times do common people abandon their startups at the first view of difficulties? How many projects are never realized just because of plain laziness? It’s in that initial moment of doubt when leaders raise above the crowd. Leaders keep going forward, because they are relentless fighters. Note that leaders are perseverant in work and effective use of their resources. Perseverance without a rational application of forces and use of resource will only lead to an utter failure.

And what’s life but a struggle against the chaotic forces of the universe? Leaders are the warriors who are able to tame those chaotic trends 😉 If you want to understand more about Leadership, you may also like reading our classic post, The 7 Attributes of Leadership.