Being a leader means being the person who points the way, with a series of inherent or learned qualities: with their knowledge, their way of relating to others, their ability to make decisions, to manage crises or to support or understand the members of a group.
There are a series of characteristics of a good leader that everyone who leads teams in any field should, at least, know:
Confidence in himself to be able to manage crisis situations, even if he can make mistakes. We already talked in another article about how to raise self-esteem, now we can use it to work on it.
Ability to make decisions effectively and judiciously, without arbitrariness.
Communicative person, who communicates with his team, who expresses what he needs, what he wants to achieve, who knows how to transmit the instructions and his motivations to make certain decisions.
Emotional self-control. Losing control, getting nervous, unhinged, is not typical of a good leader, who always has to transmit security and control of the situation to his team.
Great work capacity, even working more than the others. A good leader is not someone who lets his team kill themselves at work.
Good ability to plan and coordinate human, material and time resources, controlling the process at all times.
Charisma. A charismatic leader is a person who knows how to convince, who has magnetism, who knows how to lead with a smile, and who makes the job easy and that everyone follows him.
He is a polite and personable person, who never yells or disrespects his team.
Empathy is also a very necessary quality, because you have to understand the team, as a whole and the particularities of its members, to know how to make the most of the talents of each member.
A leader has to be fair, to make the most balanced decisions at all times.
And finally, you have to be optimistic, know how to stay motivated, through a positive attitude.
A good leader will always be distinguished because their group will be comfortable, they will feel that they are progressing in any activity, and that, despite any type of difficulty, the entire group feels motivated in their day to day.
What are the traits of the anti leader (what he should never do)
What any boss can achieve with attitudes that do not denote an adequate command capacity, is that the group complies with what is strictly necessary and does not have respect or consideration for their boss.
People who are in charge of a department or a work group, and who make a series of mistakes, or who have not learned leadership skills, will be bosses, but never leaders, and of course, they will be bad bosses.
A bad boss is selfish and only thinks about him and his well-being, he has no empathy with the team, no patience, or loyalty with his people, defects that show insecurity and lack of charisma. A bad boss will be the one who thinks that, if something goes wrong, the fault lies with the team, and will not criticize himself, and that if something goes well, the achievement is exclusively his. A bad boss will emphasize his authority, which will be the only argument he will have, when a team follows his orders to the letter, but in reality, he has no respect for him.
You must remember and take into account that, to be a good leader, there are qualities that are innate and natural, traits of the person from his birth. But there are also many other qualities that can be learned and internalized throughout our life trajectory, using emotional intelligence and taking care of personal image.
A person with leadership capacity is one that his group follows along the way, without the need for him to continually give orders.
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