The Seven Important Qualities of Corporate Leaders – The Shore – Kamloops Business Improvement Association
Each and every leader has a unique perspective, built upon years of interactions, rewards, concerns and issues. They have most often honed their skills through experience, intuition and strong core behaviours which enhance the natural abilities to communicate and create followership.
In the past century hundreds, if not thousands, of books have been written on leadership. A few are what I call foundational; they focus on the core aspects of leadership. Before a leader explores the new and innovative, I suggest looking back at the foundations of leadership to ensure that opportunities to grow have been realized, and that new skills are built on a solid foundation of knowledge.
As a leader exploring your path, these foundational texts are critical to digest prior to embracing the new and innovative. If you develop excellence in the fundamentals, everything that follows yields greater rewards.
For a list of what I consider the top three fundamental texts on leadership, see the end of this article.
The seven most frequently utilized skills for an effective leaders, for me, took form when I read the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People from Steven Covey. In his Book, Mr. Covey identified that most effective people follow a similar set of habitual behaviours. When I looked at organizations, I saw the same principle, but with slightly differing concepts that were focused in interpersonal actions.
These seven qualities are:
- To Envision – The ability to see where you want to go with great clarity and sense of urgency, including the best path to follow which will minimize disruption. Then to be able to clearly share this vision with others, creating a shared sense of purpose and direction.
- To Engage – To speak with passion and understanding, communicating effectively with others to maximize the value of your conversation, understand issues or challenges and seek proactive and positive solutions.
- To Persuade – To communicate your vision and pathway to others in a manner which inspires them to see your path and voluntarily pursue your vision.
- To Empower – To provide the tools, resources, encouragement and support that enables your team members to achieve excellence.
- To Exemplify- To consistently set the stage and exhibit the behaviours the inspire others to seek out your leadership, with the intent that they will act in the same manner as you do.
- To Execute- To implement, even if its slowly, a consistent approach to moving toward your future state or destination. To always benchmark actions and behaviours on the thought that small steps taken consistently create more sustainable momentum than large steps taken intermittently.
- To Acknowledge- To recognize the contributions of others throughout the year. To provide positive feedback and encouragement to all team members in public and in a way that shows your genuine appreciation.
Regardless of whether you are implementing a new quality control system, hiring a new team member, or simply planning for the year ahead, these simple Qualities will serve you well, as the foundation upon which your effective leadership is built.
Suggested Readings:
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey