Qualities of Good Leadership

I've worked with and coached a lot of high performance leaders. Listed below are the top five qualities of good leadership that set these men and women apart from the rest of the pack.

That isn't to say that these leaders don't make use of the other 50+ leadership traits, qualities and characteristics listed over at the good leadership skills page.

But what it does mean is that the leaders who are at the top of the game ... the cream of the crop if you will ... are VERY, VERY good at applying and integrating into their life and work the five leadership qualities listed below.

Are you a high performance leader?

What about you? Do you have the goods to be a high performance leader?Do you have the qualities that will help you and others be at your best?

Let's take a look at each of these stand out leadership qualities in detail.

1. Trustworthy

Trust is the basis for all the relationships in your life. Without trust, it's impossible to create healthy and productive environments, either in work or personal situations.

Be aware that others are watching you ... assessing your values system and integrity. People want to be assured that their trust, followed closely by their respect is being placed in a safe place -- your hands -- and that they are indeed wise to follow where you lead.

When people trust you, they are more willing to give their best, as they know that they always get your best. This leadership quality is sometime referred as integrity or honor, but all these terms have the same basic meaning: you say what you do and do what you say ... period.

Read more here about how high performance leaders build trust in the workplace

2. Self Aware and Insightful About Your Impact On Others

This is one of the qualities of good leadership that you really want to master. The best leaders are really great at watching how others are reacting to them and fine-tuning what they are saying to ensure that they are building the relationship.

This doesn't mean that they change their minds every second to get people to like them. Rather it's about finding other ways to say things so that the person they are interacting with wants to work with them and not against them.

The master leaders' know that the power is in the relationship (which is why a lot of the site is dedicated to building relationships!). And all relationships begin and end with what others think of you.

I'm a real fan of the DISC profile system because it helps you to understand your impact on others and gives you the tools to flex your style so that you can get through to others ... so that they are in the place to 'hear' your message ... and it stirs them to respond favorably to you. You may want to take a look at the ecourse called Communicating With Power which is designed to help you understand your impact on others.

3. Love To Learn, Grow, Expand

If you aren't learning, growing, expanding then you certainly can't expect the people around you to be either!

One of the things that seems to set all the great leaders apart is their absolute commitment to stepping into their potential and discovering ways to be the best possible version of themselves. I don't know about you, but I've yet to meet a leader that is considered to be at the top of his or her game, who doesn't read, listen to audios, go to courses or share what he or she learns with others.

They certainly don't sit around waiting to be sent on some corporate course.

And here's the biggest distinction I've witnessed. They seem compelled to learn, grow, expand and yet they also seem to be very content with who they are as an individual. It is kind of like they have this mantra 'Happy with where I'm at ... but not settling'. There is no sense of desperation or not being good enough. More it is am intense curiosity and that deep knowing that the reason we as humans are on this planet is to grow, learn, expand.

One of my favorite sayings is "if you aren't growing then neither are your people" (and you can quote me on that ~wink~).

A high performance leader stays relevant by making sure they are at the leading-edge in terms of leadership skills, interpersonal skills and knowledge in their organization's field of expertise.

You may want to consider joining Align-Lead-Inspire.com - it is the membership site I created for high performance leaders and contains the premium leadership development content ... audios, ecourses, interviews, articles, ebooks

You'll claim the qualities of good leadership and make your mark when you Learn, Grow, Expand

4. Have High Self Worth and Self Esteem

You might not think that how you feel about yourself has a whole lot to do with how others perceive you or how effective you can be at taking charge of a group situation. However, it would be a huge mistake to make this assumption. Every individual is either their own best friend or their own worst enemy.

How you feel about yourself often leads to subconscious patterns. Those with a negative self worth may have many other leadership qualities, but sabotage their own efforts with a deep belief that they aren't good enough to carry the day.

Dealing with self esteem can seem like a touchy-feely waste of time, but that is absolutely not the case. It is crucial to your success and leadership ability.

In this article on leadership and self esteem you can read how Steve's self esteem almost railroaded his career.

It's interesting but almost without exception the leaders that I have coached (and that is in the high hundreds in one-to-one coaching, and thousands in workshop situations) have at some point struggled with their self-esteem. In coaching sessions time and again leaders have asked me to help them work through situations where their self-belief is hurting them. For most leaders this is just a momentary thing and not something that dominates their lives.

But even those momentary lapses do make sure that you have the skills to recognize when its your self-worth thats creating a problem and pick yourself up and get back into the game with a healthier perspective.

I suspect self worth is one of those qualities of good leadership that most people will glide over ... I'm okay with that ... just make sure on those times when you take a hit you've got the skills to get back in the saddle fast!

5. Are Excited By Life

If you aren't excited about the journey ahead how on earth will you excite those around you? Now this doesn't mean you need to go all cheerleader. But it does mean that you get out there with a spring in your step and a vibe of passion, urgency, desire, energy and animation that others just can't help but be compelled by.

As you read the pages on my site you'll guess that I'm a real fan of Richard Branson. He really embodies this quality of good leadership in bucket-loads. You just know that he's thrilled to be alive and seems to bring that sense of thrill and curiosity into everything he does .... whether that's ballooning, building the Virgin Brand, working with a kid in an orphanage or talking to a passenger on a plane.

I contrast Richard's out there, extroverted style with one of the leaders that has most inspired me in a work situation. He was almost the complete opposite of Richard, quiet, more serious than cheerful, considered in his thinking. But did he ever have belief in what we were doing and he was 'quietly' thrilled by the journey we as a team were on.

This quiet sense of destiny and purpose that he brought in to our team inspired all of us. It simply meant that the rah-rah stuff he left to those of us in the leadership team who were higher up on the extrovert scale, and he would come quietly behind reinforcing with all the team members that this was a special moment in their life and be excited by the possibilities of where we were going. And his quiet style did embed in each and every one of us a sense of meaning and joy about what we were doing!

Well that's my Top 5 Qualities of Good Leadership. Come on over and check out the next 5 qualities of good leadership that high performance leaders consistently use.

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