Much has been written about the characteristics of great leaders. I have found 13 characteristics that hold true for the great leaders I have known. There are other ingredients to excellent leadership, but if you have all 13 of these characteristics, you are probably one of the elite leaders.
Great Leaders:
- Operate from a set of values
- Are Congruent and live their vision
- Are passionate and infect others with that passion
- Value Transparency
- Have high Emotional Intelligence
- Never stop learning
- Believe work is play
- Balance the needs of stakeholders and don’t worry about popularity
- Foster great followership
- Make large trust deposits
- Practice ubiquitous reinforcement
- Do better in a crisis
- Develop others
To read the details of these 13 dimensions, see my white paper http://www.leadergrow.com/ThirteenGreatTruthsaboutLeadership.pdf
Bob, that’s an inclusive list you have there. It seemed everytime I thought of something to add, it could either be subsumed within one of your items are was at least related. For example, a sense of curiosity is related to stimulating growth and likely your “never stop learning” feeds into that. I also think leaders must make work fun, and there you have they believe work is play…let’s just hope they create an environment for OTHERS to experience it the same way. Your first one alone casts a broad net, so again, I applaud your list and would enjoy hearing others share their thoughts. Someone is bound is say, “Courage,” to which you might respond that it takes courage to live with transparency. People who are high in emotional intelligence manage their fears well, and thus they show courage. Good work! Holly