In last week’s blog post we discussed whether it’s true that there are born leaders, or if people are able to acquire the skills necessary to become a great leader. Most experts agree that a number of leadership attributes require experience to possess. According to Dr. Ronald Riggio, all leaders have qualities that are both inborn and developed. This week we’ll take a closer look at both innate and leader leadership qualities.
Leading With Innate Abilities
If you were born with core leadership qualities, people have long noticed how you seem right for the leadership role. Your character lends itself to many of the behaviours expected of good leaders.
Extraversion: People who are naturally outgoing draw followers. Boldness and assertiveness are greater qualities yet, sought for leadership because of the demands of the role.
Intelligence: People with high logical and creative intelligence have a distinct advantage in the complex, fast-paced business world. Having good social intelligence, or people skills, is an extra bonus, since many of the challenges in leadership require effectively dealing with people.
Handling stress: If you are naturally even keeled and have a high threshold for stress, your leadership will weather storms that other leaders can’t survive. This affords leaders high levels of trust from their people.
Decisiveness: Drawing sound conclusions from natural confidence and insight helps a leader be decisive. This is a natural quality vital for running an organization with timely and effective direction.
Leading With Learned Abilities
A number of key leadership skills are learned or developed through experience, training, or coaching. This is promising for many leaders who want to improve beyond their natural abilities and current skill set.
Problem solving: Gathering information and logically processing viable solutions is a skill primarily learned through experience. Quite often, a crisis-oriented environment sharpens this skill the fastest.
People skills: Some relational skills can be natural, such as an interest in people. But many leaders struggle with emotional intelligence: reading people, active listening, and showing empathy. Until leaders learn and master these relational skills, more fail than succeed.
Business communication: The art of communicating in writing and formal speaking is typically a learned skill. Communication is complex, and many aspects need to be considered to properly convey ideas or requests to effectively influence people.
Self-assessment: This is perhaps the most difficult, yet vital, achievement a leader can have and it rarely comes naturally. It is normally developed through specific coaching or training. The most effective leaders learn how to become self-aware and identify strengths and weaknesses. They know their passions, motives, and values. They understand, and maintain, trustworthiness. Effective leaders sharpen themselves with these evaluations.
It’s an enlightening process to go through these many leadership qualities and take note of where your strengths lie, and in which areas you may need to work on improving. As always, I would love to hear from you. I can be reached here or on LinkedIn.
