Top 10 Leadership Traits

What traits do great leaders have?

1.  Honesty - it is true honesty is the best policy and it works 100% of the time in all situations.

2.  Delegate - yes the ongoing lesson of learning to let go and empowering others on your team to take care of the task at hand.   This is the most challenging trait and still working on it!

3.  Communication - this can be attributed to most successes and most failures.   Effective, clear communication is one of the most important keys in leadership.

4.  Sense of Humour - tough in a way as it sometimes backfires and attempted humour via sarcasm could lead you into trouble.  It needs to be a natural and in good sense of humour on a light subject to work.

5.  Confidence - it is OK not to know everything, however, it is in how you interpret the information and how confident you are when you lead the situation that count.

6.  Commitment - following through on every task and promise until it is completed and asking for feedback when it applies makes you a great leader.  Remember the follow-up rule?

7.  Positive Attitude - just like negativity is contagious and spreads like wildfire, so is being an optimist.  Always looking at every challenge as an opportunity is best attitude to achieve successful results.

8. Creativity - explore new ways of achieving results which may not have been done yet with your Team.   What different things can you lead with that are new to set you apart from the rest?

9.  Intuition - your gut instinct is usually right and you should follow it.   Occasionally second guessing yourself is required, however, you will find your intuition is correct most of the time.

10.  Ability to Inspire - as a leader your role is to inspire and invigorate everyone around you, including your team, your clients, your prospects and everyone else you interact with.   

What other traits do you find great leaders need to have?

Inspired by this Forbes article:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyaprive/2012/12/19/top-10-qualities-that-make-a-great-leader/