There is nothing more beautiful and rewarding than to feel that you are contributing to the realization of great things. You feel pleasure, esteem, and a feeling of personal and pride. The leader does things without expecting anything in return. One of the most significant benefits of being a leader is the satisfaction of contributing to the greater good. That would mean working toward a cause you believe in and aligned with your values and beliefs.
The 5 Characteristics That Distinguish Leaders
What is defined as a leader is often confused with the charismatic individual or great orator? Any good leader will demonstrate excellent communication skills. But true leaders aren’t just great speakers. Here are five characteristics that they have:
1. They project themselves and inspire others because they know where they want to go and engage everyone to get there together;
2. They provide safety and create the conditions for collaborative work. They develop trust in others and build group spirit and teamwork;
3. They seek to make the best possible decisions. To do so, they empower the people they work with;
4. They inspire confidence. When it comes time to go, they are followed without hesitation;
5. They put the interests of others before their interests.
Have you always wanted to be a leader? Do you sometimes feel like leadership requires a lot of skills, knowledge, and experience? It does not have to be that way. Here are three signs that you have what it takes to be a strong leader, no matter your background.
You Only Lead Other When You Need to
We’ve all met people who are trying to run everything. Whether it’s a strategic brainstorming session, the choice of football teams, or a family outing, they can’t help but seize the leadership position and control everything. Often stubborn, impatient, and sometimes abrupt, these people see themselves as leaders from an early age. However, true leaders must be able to be a follower at first. There is also the aspect of delegating to move forward. We agree that one person cannot control everything. Real leaders tend to work the other way around: they analyze each situation and the role they should play. They do not consider that they must have control over everything.
You Always Observe Before You Act
Many believe that leadership is associated with the word “action” and being the best in all areas. A leader does not have to be the strongest, fastest, and most resilient person in the group. An action is only a secondary tool since he has other capacities such as the capacity to see further than others, to find answers, solutions, to identify problems, opportunities, threats, risks. It is this analytical capacity that is their strength and not only their ability to act. Not only are they able to analyze the external world, but they are also very self-aware. Self-awareness allows leaders to observe their emotions without reacting. That is why great leaders remain calm amid chaos.
You Change People’s Lives to Make Them Better.
The true leader is not obsessed with short-term results. What matters to him or her is the cohesion of the group. Another important aspect is the fact that everyone expresses their potential to the best of their ability. He will look further with all the members of his group so that they can grow and become better. He is aware that he cannot succeed alone and that his team is his best ally to succeed.
The 7 Values That Help Develop the Mental Strength of Leaders
We act and react according to what is important to us. Our filters of values and beliefs dictate our behaviour and our choices. The value system is built over time under the influence of our environment, our experiences, and our decision-making. What’s striking about leaders is to see how well they’ve been able to develop mental strength. Below are the seven core values often found in leaders and top athletes.
Value 1: Passion
It’s easier to be a good leader when you love what you do. When work rhymes with passion, you can give the best of yourself. Enthusiasm is very contagious, and you will soon notice that people around you are also passionate about the work.
Value 2: Discipline
It’s a cold and slow motivation with no sparkle. It complements passion when this one gets a little dull. It brings constancy and rigour to passion.
Value 3: Will
Will is the ability to define and determine precisely what you want and then to focus on it. To be a good leader, you need to be able to avoid distractions at all costs and stay focused on the goal. Leaders avoid losing energy and time on things that are not aligned with what they want to achieve.
Value 4: Respect
It is fundamental, in leadership, to respect others, but also yourself. It’s about recognizing others for whom they truly are, showing that we care.
Value 5: Humility
Achieving a result is sometimes a small matter. Sometimes, wanting to achieve perfection is naive. As a leader, it is better to accept the imperfections that you have. It is compatible with ambition. The difference between purpose and pretension is precisely humility.
Value 6: Self-control
Our images dictate our behaviour, an outcome of our values and beliefs. The only thing we can control is how we’re going to react to events. Real mental strength consists in staying calm, serene, and confident after a mistake, a defeat, or during a frustrating moment.
Value 7: Intelligence.
Not only is knowledge of a field essential as a leader, but emotional
intelligence is what will make you a great leader. A leader with high emotional intelligence will be more likely to engage and enable his team to perform.
As a future leader, you will also have to work on your limiting beliefs. We will talk about this in our next article. Stay tuned!
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(Photo taken by: Jehyun Sung)