7 Unstoppable Leadership Traits
As businesses determine how to build their leadership pipeline – from senior executives to first-time managers, many face the challenge of successfully developing strong and effective leaders. Failing to do so means dealing with several consequences, such as lower employee effectiveness and productivity, increased employee attrition, and a weak leadership bench.
In a survey conducted by Global Leadership Forecast, a mere 11% of firms reported that they have a "very strong" or "strong" leadership bench. This figure is the lowest it has been in the past decade. Thus, this makes us wonder: what are the traits of a strong and unstoppable leader?
It's a challenging question to answer. Leadership is not a role - it's a competency. Therefore, it is tough to pick a single behavior, attribute, mindset, or quality that indicates greatness. Even though great leaders embody several qualities, all working in harmony, the seven unstoppable leadership traits that create greatness are:
Self-management
Strategic thinking
Accountability
Innovation
Have a vision for the future
Communication
Empathy
In this article, we will look at the traits that will help you go from being a solid achiever to becoming a genuinely unstoppable leader.
Here is everything you need to know.
The Premise: What Are Leadership Traits?
Leadership trait is a personal quality that defines successful and effective leaders in the business world. Whether you are managing an entire company, a department, or a team of individuals, these traits enable you to guide individuals, projects, and companies to success.
The most important leadership qualities entail soft skills instead of industry-specific work experience or technical knowledge. This makes leadership traits critical in almost every occupation.
The 7 Unstoppable Leadership Traits
Here are the seven unstoppable leadership traits and how you can develop them.
1. Self-Management
It is tough to manage your team effectively if you cannot properly manage yourself. The idea of self-managing means having the ability to prioritize your goals and being accountable and responsible for achieving those objectives. As an effective leader, you need to be able to regulate your emotions, time, and attention while staying aware of your strengths, weaknesses, and biases.
Unstoppable leaders are great at balancing their professional and personal lives and handling stress. However, you should also remember the importance of compassion and be able to respond to events and people appropriately. It is imperative to maintain discipline and self-control in your actions. However, you should avoid becoming overly inflexible or reserved.
How to Develop Self-Managing Skills
To be good at self-management, you need to clearly define which tasks are most important and focus on the most critical responsibilities, avoiding distractions that divert your attention from what really matters.
You should also identify effective techniques to manage your time and streamline your everyday activities. This can involve setting up a time-management app on your smartphone, using an agenda book, and making to-do lists.
Self-management also means you need to embody healthy stress management. Thus, you should exercise regularly, eat a well-balanced diet, pay attention to your personal hygiene, and actively focus on reducing your stress levels. Despite the hectic schedule that comes with being a leader, you need to take regular breaks to clear your mind, keep healthy snacks at work and look for opportunities for physical activity, such as a short, brisk walk during the lunch break.
2. Strategic Thinking
Strategic thinking skills are skills that allow you to use critical thinking to plan for the future and solve challenging problems. These skills are vital to overcoming obstacles, achieving business goals, and addressing challenges.
According to a report published by Harvard Business Publishing, Leading Now: Critical Capabilities for a Complex World, leaders should always be prepared to modify their strategies to overcome unforeseen challenges or capture upcoming opportunities. Strategic thinking is a continuous process that involves analyzing your business environment.
Moreover, a 2013 Management Research Group (MRG) study revealed that strategic thinking was the most effective leadership quality to perceptions of "effectiveness" and "success." In simple words, employees value leaders who don't just focus on solving existing problems but who are looking to the future.
How to Think Strategically
The best way to master strategic thinking skills is to get into the habit of questioning yourself every time you are about to make a decision. Ask yourself: Should you consider a different perspective? Is there another possibility you might have overlooked?
Moreover, if you need to improve your strategic thinking skills quickly – to position yourself for a leadership role, address a pressing need your team or company is facing, or start your own business – formal training might be your best! For instance, you can enroll in the course Digital Strategy to acquire skills to determine and implement a high-level strategy.
3. Accountability
Unstoppable leaders know how to use authority and power without overpowering or overwhelming their team members. The best leaders take complete responsibility for their team's performance – whether the result is good or bad - and for their own mistakes.
Leaders need to work within a well-defined process and be efficient and productive in their decisions. They understand the importance of encouraging and supporting individuality while being well-versed in the business structures and the need to follow policies and rules. Moreover, they can balance various perspectives and opinions while taking the right action.
How to Make Yourself Accountable
The first thing you need to do to master accountability skills is to understand your role in the situation. When you clearly understand what responsibilities, tasks, and deliverables you need to accomplish, it becomes easier for you to take ownership of it.
Moreover, in order to take personal accountability for your behaviors, actions, and choices, you need to be open to change. Remember, leaders who are accountable ask for feedback, take on challenges, innovate, spread optimism, show concern, and set clear goals.
4. Innovation
Outstanding leaders enhance organizational performance through innovation. They encourage team members to apply creative and original thinking to both emerging and existing business processes, products, and models. Doing this will foster innovation that steers your company to new heights and around the twists and turns of a dynamic business landscape.
Driving innovation involves using good judgment to where, when, and how it will be used to result in maximum business value. It also means identifying ways to get the most innovative thinking from team members. Innovation and creativity work together, and unstoppable leaders welcome imaginative and original thinking.
How to Foster Innovation at the Workplace
The key is to be persistent in pursuing your goals and flexible and open-minded in how you reach there. Encourage your team members to spend 10 to 15 percent of their time exploring new ideas through prototyping and brainstorming. For instance, Google encourages its employees to spend 20 percent of their time working on what they think will most benefit Google.
Another way to foster innovation is to adopt a non-hierarchal management approach. Remember, the most innovative companies have a flat yet strong management approach, enabling employees to break down barriers and silos between work areas. A lot of innovation comes from cross-pollination between divisions and teams and from the sharing ideas of problems and ideas.
5. Have a Vision for the Future
Every leadership success begins with a vision, and the best leaders know how to develop a clear, compelling vision that connects to the company's strategic plans.
A vision minimizes uncertainty and offers focus. Truly effective leaders can express their vision and use it to inspire their team members. This leadership trait alone can sometimes distinguish a good leader from a great unstoppable leader.
How to Become a Visionary Leader
Being a visionary leader is all about managing change while striking a balance between growth and stability. You need to incorporate new approaches without getting distracted from the primary goals.
To become a visionary leader, you need to understand that change is continuously happening around you. Thus, what might have worked previously might not work now. Practice being agile and adaptable as you execute new strategies and let your business model evolve over time.
6. Communication
Another leadership trait that every leader needs to have is communication. Successful leaders know when to listen and when to talk. They are strong communicators and can succinctly and clearly explain to their team members everything from particular tasks. If team members aren't aware of or don't know their expectations, they tend to fall short. Thus, the more specific you are, the better leader you become.
You should be able to communicate at every level: at a personal level, to the entire team, and to the department. Keep in mind that communication depends on a steady flow of nonverbal and verbal exchanges of information and ideas. Thus, try to be approachable and aim to involve people from various levels.
How to Improve Your Communication Skills
Perhaps the best way to improve your communication skills is to be present and recognize that every individual has their own specific communication skills. Getting rid of distractions, such as devices, from meetings or personal interactions is critical.
Also, remember that communication is a two-way street. Therefore, it is important to practice active listening. Active listening is one of the best ways to encourage honest and open communication as a leader. Knowing your audience's preferred communication styles and motivation helps you adapt your message and increase the chances of effective communication.
7. Empathy
The final leadership trait on our list is empathy. Truly great leaders have an open mind to comprehend their followers' hopes, motivations, problems, and aspirations so that they can foster deep personal connections with them.
Empathy is a mindset that allows leaders to improve teamwork strategies, make better predictions, inspire loyalty amongst their teams, and boost creativity. Moreover, understanding where people are coming from creates a more welcoming environment where leaders thrive, and team members are productive.
A study of around 900 employees by Catalyst revealed that empathy in leaders has some major benefits:
Innovation: 61 percent of individuals reported that when their leaders were empathetic, they were better able to practice innovation compared to 13 percent of employees with less empathetic leaders.
Empathetic: Almost 80 percent of individuals who experienced empathetic behavior from their leaders reported feeling engaged compared with just 32 percent who experienced less empathetic behavior.
Retention: 62 percent of women of color and 57 percent of white women said they were less likely to consider resigning from their companies when they felt their life situations were respected and considered important by their companies. On the other hand, when they didn't feel that degree of respect or value for their life situations, only 30 percent of women of color and 14 percent of white women stated they were less likely to think of resigning.
How to Become an Empathetic Leader
One thing about becoming an empathetic leader is that you have to understand the unique situations of every person on your team. This will help you tailor assignments to their particular circumstances, boosting employee productivity and satisfaction.
Another easy and effective way to know, understand and empathize with your team members is to schedule one-on-one meetings with them. If you don't want to schedule these meetings, you can simply offer these meetings to your team so they can schedule them at their convenience if they need to.
Last Few Words
Self-management, strategic thinking, accountability, innovation, having a clear vision for the future, communication, and empathy are the seven magic leadership traits. When combined, these qualities create great, unstoppable leaders who can build exceptional teams that deliver outstanding results for their companies.
