Leadership Qualities

What makes a leader effective? To identify these traits, Dr. Susan Giles, an organizational scientist, executive coach, and leadership development consultant recently completed the first round of a study of 195 leaders in 15 countries over 30 global organizations. Participants were asked to choose the 15 most important leadership characteristics, and Giles grouped the top ones into five major themes:

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• Demonstrates strong ethics and provides a sense of safety: This requires a commitment to fairness and a clear communication of expectations.
• Empowers others to self-organize: This necessitates distributing power and relying on the decisions of those closest to the action.
• Fosters a sense of connection and belonging: Some ways to do this are paying focused attention when speaking to others, and setting the tone that members of your team have each other’s backs.
• Shows openness to new ideas and fosters organizational learning: To encourage learning among employees, leaders must demonstrate their own openness to learning (and changing course).
• Nurtures growth: When leaders show a commitment to others’ growth, employees are more loyal and motivated.

While these traits may not surprise you, Giles points out that each can be difficult to master. It's not easy to delegate, to admit mistakes, to change course, to take risks, or, occasionally, to fail. But those who do so win trust, respect and loyalty—all invaluable commodities.   (Tweet it!)

What other traits of effective leaders do you think should be added to this list? To join the conversation, click "comments" above.

If you would like to learn more about creating a habit around masterful communication, check out our online learning programs.  

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