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The 20 Qualities of Good Leadership

Guest post by: Eric Douglas

Article Overview: This tool defines the 20 qualities of leadership that researchers have identified as common to virtually all organizations. It can be used to learn the leadership qualities people appreciate most within the organization. It may also be used to aid an individual leader in assessing his or her own leadership skills.

The 20 Qualities of Good Leadership

Suggested Exercise: A manager can ask a group to select from this list the 7 qualities that they most admire in a leader. Then total the responses and initiate a discussion about their selection. Ask: "Where do I meet your expectations, and where can I improve? _____ Ambitious (aspiring, hard-working, striving)

_____ Broad-minded (open-minded, flexible, receptive, tolerant)

_____ Caring (appreciative, compassionate, concerned, loving, nurturing)

_____ Competent (capable, proficient, effective, efficient, professional)

_____ Cooperative (collaborative, team player, responsive)

_____ Courageous (bold, daring, fearless, gutsy)

_____ Dependable (reliable, conscientious, responsible)

_____ Determined (dedicated, resolute, persistent, purposeful)

_____ Fair-minded (just, unprejudiced, objective, forgiving, willing to pardon others)

_____ Forward-looking (visionary, foresighted, concerned about the future, sense of direction)

_____ Honest (truthful, has integrity, trustworthy, has character)

_____ Imaginative (creative, innovative, curious)

_____ Independent (self-reliant, self-sufficient, self-confident)

_____ Inspiring (uplifting, enthusiastic, energetic, humorous, cheerful)

_____ Intelligent (bright, thoughtful, intellectual, reflective, logical)

_____ Loyal (faithful, dutiful, unswerving in allegiance, devoted)

_____ Mature (experienced, wise, has depth)

_____ Self-controlled (restrained, self-disciplined)

_____ Straightforward (direct, candid, forthright)

_____ Supportive (helpful, offers assistance, comforting)

Picture someone you think of as a great leader. It could be someone you work with. It could be a person you've read about or seen on TV. What are the qualities that make him or her a great leader? What are the first things you think of? Courage? Vision? Wisdom? Experience? What makes them different?

Admit it, the question is difficult to answer. More difficult than it should be. One reason is that leadership is a highly complex activity, so complex that we have difficulty comprehending it. Our minds are hard-wired to think linearly. A before B, then comes C. That's easy to see. But as the writer Peter Senge points out, our minds are not naturally fashioned to understanding dynamic complexity. And if anything embodies dynamic complexity, it's the process of leading.

A second reason is that we often believe a favorable leader will always make favorable decisions. We go about our daily lives, catching snippets of reality shows and news headlines ("Another CEO was fired today") and homespun wisdom ("All we need is someone with a grain of sense to lead this country.") We tend to expect our leaders to be perfect. We forget that they are human.

A third reason is more humbling. Psychologists have demonstrated through experiment that human beings are rather sheepish in the way we follow our leaders. If Person A is our leader, we don't protest his course of action. Instead, we do what A says, trusting him to do a good job. We're hardwired for this kind of blind obedience because it conferred an evolutionary advantage on early human beings. When told to attack a woolly mammoth, people went along and got the job done no questions asked (even if a few lost their lives in the process!). Why? Because the killing of a woolly mammoth was bountiful for the whole tribe.

So what if A proves not to be a very good leader? The evidence suggests that we wait too long before we do anything. The majority of humans still faithfully follow until the evidence of incompetence is overwhelming. By then, the damage has been done.

Given all these reasons why we can't detect a strong leader from a weak one, how can we ever get it right? What can save us from being perpetually deceived? What is the way out of this leadership paradox? The answer is that we all need to agree on what good leaders actually do. We need a clear roadmap - one that's simple enough to understand, yet complex enough to capture all of leadership's dimensions. If we all agree on such a roadmap, then we can exercise much more discretion and intelligence in our selection of leaders. The breakthrough leadership book, Leading at Light Speed, aims to provide this roadmap.

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Article Tags: good leadership, leadership qualities, leadership skills, leadership styles, qualities of good leadership, qualities of leadership



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