How To Become an Effective Leader? Know the Essential Qualities and Skills of a Good Leader

What’s common between famous leaders Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela? They were world-famous leaders who fought for equality and freedom. Vision, honesty, empathy, and creativity were some of the good qualities of these popular leaders. Similarly, many things make an individual a great leader in the corporate world, and here we will be discussing 10 such good qualities of an effective leader.

Let’s start with precisely understanding who a leader is. Chambers English Dictionary defines a leader as “one who leads or goes first: a chief: the head of a party, expedition, etc.” Therefore, a leader is someone who has been appointed to leadership by a set of people. He/she should resonate with the thoughts and beliefs of the organization as well as the people they are leading. Let’s move to understand the qualities every good leader should have.

10 Qualities of An Effective Leader

A recent study conducted by the Center for Creative Leadership revealed that 38% of new leaders fail in the first 18 months because they lack the qualities that are imperative for an effective leader to possess. We’ve put together a few of such qualities:

Honesty

The most important quality of a good and an effective leader is their ability to be honest, and transparent with their team. Additionally, a leader must create a safe space for employees to express their grievances and issues openly. Honesty should be a two-way street; leaders must be honest with their team, and the team should be honest with their leader.

By creating a safe space, a leader ensures that there is no miscommunication in the team, which helps build trust and increase the employees’ efficiency and productivity.

Challenge team members

Unlike managers, leaders don’t confide in the status quo. Instead, they push their team members to challenge the status quo and set new standards of success every time.

Great leaders put their communication skills to use and understand their colleagues’ mindsets, capabilities, and goals. Then, they use the information to challenge their team members. They motivate and push them to do the undoable. This is one of the must-needed skills every leader should have.

Delegate and prioritize tasks

Whenever leaders believe in their employees, they give them opportunities to learn and grow. They delegate work among them and see how they perform based on which they reward them. Good managers measure every performance of their employees.

Besides delegating responsibilities, the role of a leader is to ensure that the team completes all the assigned tasks in the stipulated time. Therefore, leaders should prioritize tasks that are time-sensitive and try their best to get them completed in time.

Emeritus India has several strategic and time management short-term courses as well as leadership development programmes that train leaders to excel in the given field. You can explore various leadership courses on our website.

Confident

Leaders self-doubt themselves many times during their leadership journey. However, what sets them apart from others is their ability to bounce back with confidence. Good leaders are confident of their abilities and skills. They work on themselves constantly- from taking different short-term leadership courses to following the footsteps of renowned leaders.

A self-confident manager spreads the same energy to their team. They motivate their team with their non-tangible qualities.

Commitment

An effective leader is committed to their work, motivating employees, or working on oneself. Good leaders never give up easily. They expect the same level of commitment from their team members and motivate them to do so. A committed leader spreads positivity across the team, who in turn get inspired by their commitment.

Positivity

Effective leaders are great problem-solvers and positive thinkers. Every business has a lot of day-to-day obstacles that are solved by leaders, and sometimes it may even overwhelm them. However, a leader manages to fill its members with positivity on hectic or challenging days too.
Moreover, a positive work environment leads to a more engaging and productive workforce. A good leader maintains a positive work environment throughout a project by focusing on solutions rather than the problem.

Invest in relationships

Leaders invest in relationships because they are empathetic beings who believe in sharing a strong bond with the team. Furthermore, they don’t focus on protecting their domain- instead, they expand it by investing in mutually beneficial relationships. Finally, leaders share the harvest of their success to help build momentum for those around them. This is one of the much-needed qualities in a leader.

Intuitive

Cambridge Dictionary defines intuitive as “able to know or understand something because of feelings rather than facts or proof.” Good leaders are intuitive as they trust their judgments. Recently, leadership coach Hortense le Gentil talked about how she believes that leaders should rely on intuition for making hard decisions. This is especially because intuition heavily relies on a person’s existing knowledge and life learnings. So, effective leaders follow their instincts and trust in themselves while making difficult decisions. They take the blame for wrong decisions.

Inspiring

Leaders are self-motivating, and this makes them great positive influencers for their team members. Many successful leaders focus on inspiring their employees. They constantly motivate them to push them to take risks and achieve whatever they desire.

Openness

A good leader must be open to new ideas. They should have the emotional intelligence to understand that change is inevitable. Therefore, being open to new ideas that challenge the status quo is one of the mandatory leadership qualities they should possess.

Exhilarating Career in Leadership

Leadership is becoming the fastest growing education program in India. There are many career opportunities for people who have completed a course in leadership. So, if you want to become an effective leader and open up numerous job opportunities for yourself, sign up for one of the online leadership programmes.

Emeritus offers a wide range of short-term and executive leadership courses that effectively prepare you to deal with real-life problems such as the Senior Executive Leadership Program. We offer all-inclusive courses in collaboration with top institutes like the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indian School of Business (ISB), and others at a reasonably affordable fee.