Everyone knows that without a good leader, it is very difficult to achieve anything as a team. A leader is a person who brings everyone together to achieve one shared goal in the best possible manner. Everyone wants to be a leader without learning what leadership is all about and what makes of a good leader. A good leader consists of a few sets of principles without which, no leader can be great.
Certain elements can be identified in almost every successful leader, such as authenticity. A good leader is always an authentic one. Without authenticity, it is very hard for a leader to gain trust in his/her people. That is why a leader must preach what he/she says. An authentic leader is always respected and his/her words are taken seriously and not for granted. A leader should also lead his/her team from the front. No one respects a leader who does not contribute in any manner and just keeps on talking and howling orders. People respect a leader who is not scared to lead his/her team from the front and take responsibility for the actions because everyone knows it is easy to sit and talk but hard to go out there and do those things.
There is an assumption that prevails in the minds of young and inexperienced people that leaders create rules which cannot be broken. It is not like that in reality. A leader makes rules with some sense that only prevails according to the situations in the current time, and the leader recognizes that with time the situations will change and those rules will be required to be modified too. And so a good leader keeps on breaking the boundaries to achieve new heights now and then and encourages his/her people to come out of their comfort zone and do the same. But at the same time, a good leader never leaves the side of his/her people. He/she always stay with them and help them with the things they think are hard or impossible to achieve. A good leader keeps on coaching his/her people so that they can be independent one day and do things on their own, thus promoting overall development. This has an extension. A good leader, when he/she coaches their people, they hope to create an organization with distributed leadership where everyone is in authority of something and has a responsibility they need to carry out. This creates a sense of belonging amongst the people as well as makes it easier for marking accountability. But it is not just this; a good leader is also emotionally intelligent. No leader who can’t cope up with the stress of making important decisions deserves to be up there. A good leader is someone who can cope up with almost any kind of situation calmly. It helps if a leader is calm and emotionally intelligent because if a leader can handle him/her, how will they handle their people in times of crisis. A good leader is also someone who is a mixture of being a hero and a helper at the same time. Being a helper means coming out on the field and helping and supporting people in doing their jobs no matter what and being a hero means getting done everything by one’s self and saving everyone from their troubles. It helps if a leader can possess the qualities of both because there are situations when people can’t simply handle the stress and wait for their hero aka leader to come and save them.
But being a good leader and having all those good qualities don’t necessarily mean that the leadership will be successful. For managing a successful leadership, a leader has to ensure a positive environment amongst his/her people so that all those good qualities of being a good leader can be put to good use. For creating a positive environment, a leader needs to create more leaders. What does this mean? This means that if there are more and more people who understand taking responsibility for their work and help others in lifting themselves, there can be a positive environment. People need to be educated about their role and their authority in the organization and a leader must make them feel important in some manner. This is needed because if people don’t feel a sense of belongingness; they will soon leave the organization to go somewhere, they feel like they belong. Also, a leader needs to step down one day, which is why he/she needs to mentor their people in such a way that they can handle the leader’s legacy comfortably when they are not there anymore. So qualities of a good leader are only of any use when there is a good and positive environment for leadership. A successful leadership is not impossible, but yes, it very difficult to manage with so many elements in the mix. That is why it can be said that successful leaders are gems who are capable of doing absolutely anything. Many great leaders were great at one simple thing – communication. Every leader needs to be good at communication.