What Makes A Great Leader

The best managers know that a big part of being a great leader is setting a good example. Good leaders must establish vision, establish clear goals and directions, and chart out a dynamic way forward for their teams or groups.

They cultivate the strengths and talents of their people, and they create teams that are committed to accomplishing shared goals. The best leaders must also have the ability to properly interpret others, rather than taking everything that is said personally. Great leaders are able to link a current problem with lessons learned from the past in order to make decisions and act on them quickly.

Great leaders know they are not going to have a happy, motivated team if they do not display positive attitudes themselves. Effective leaders make big impacts on not just the members of the teams they lead, but on the entire company. From working extra hours to complete an important project, to treating others with respect and kindness, good leaders demonstrate that they are ready and willing to do whatever it is that they ask of their employees.

Whether you are running your own company or leading teams in an office environment, the best leaders need a solid set of leadership skills that will help them positively engage with their employees, teammates, and clients. A great leader is one who is able to identify and nurture leadership traits in even the smallest members of a team. This may be the hardest quality for great leaders to cultivate, as it is at times in conflict with the other powerful characteristics of leadership.

Leaders must be able to operate with interpersonal competence, but also must learn techniques like how to listen well, communicate honestly and openly, delegate, resolve conflicts, and so on, in order to really do the job and to hold the entire movement/organization/project together. A leader who is trustworthy has a strong sense of character, keeps his or her promises, and communicates with others in an open, honest, direct way. A leader with integrity draws upon their values to guide their decisions, behaviors, and relationships with others.

Real leaders must be empathetic, demonstrate desired behaviors in their teams, be accountable for their actions, effectively delegate, and offer encouragement when needed. It is often said that employees and direct reports model the behaviors of their managers -- and good leaders must set an example by always reflecting the way they want their teams to behave. Managers might answer to higher-ups, but good leaders know their true mission is to make sure that their employees have the resources they need to perform their jobs efficiently and effectively - as well as the direct support that they need to flourish within the workplace.

The psychologist and writer Daniel Goleman says that good leaders know this, but I asked him how much emotional intelligence is an accepted notion in managerial thought today, about twenty-five years after his best-selling book, "Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ," was published. With the book Primal Leadership (The New Leaders) by psychologist and author Daniel Goleman, he went on to identify an emotional dimension of excellent leadership, and his 2006 book, Social Intelligence, The New Science of Human Relationships, goes even deeper in the field of creating committed, committed organizations. Without emotional intelligence, one may have top-notch training, a sharp intellect, and a never-ending stream of great ideas, yet they still will not make great leaders.