Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Vital Attributes of Leadership

By Ethan Beh

What are the characteristic of leadership? What does it take to be a good leader? No matter where you are in life right now, having leadership skills can be very useful in the various situations that you face. The benefits it brings in helping you handle tough situations are priceless.

What separates a good leader and a poor one is having the right characteristic of leadership and using effective leadership styles. There are plenty of attributes required to be a good leader. For this article, lets focus on the most vital ones.

1. Communication. It is very important for a leader to have good communication skills as he or she would not only be constantly communicating with the team, but also to external parties. In fact, communicating is one of the things that leaders do the most.

So what does it mean to be a good communicator? For starters it means saying what is required, not what is desired. Good leaders tell the truth like it is, without sugarcoating or fearing of hurting others' feelings.

Criticize when necessary, give credit where it is due, encourage when encouragement is needed and always listen to what your followers have to say. Being a good communicator means also being a good listener.

II. Decision Making. The second vital attribute of being a good leader is to be a good decision maker. A good decision maker must;

I. MAKE TIMELY DECISION - To make decisions within the required time frame and not spend too much time considering and analyzing each possible decision. 2. BE RESOLUTE - It means having the determination to stick long enough to a decision and not giving up halfway through. 3. BE FLEXIBLE - Be flexible enough to change prior decisions and directions when it is known the wrong decision has been made.

Sometimes it is not possible to have all the information to make a decision. Thus, often times instinctive judgment is needed. A good leader trusts his judgment and has the courage to use it. Courage to make decisions defines a good leader.

Developing these two attributes will bring you a long way towards becoming a great leader.

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