Are leaders born or made? Can you learn leadership skills? Specific actions and qualities seem to reflect the postures of successful leaders, regardless of the organization or cause they lead.
- Make others feel important. If goals and decisions are self-serving, staff members will quickly lose their enthusiasm. Emphasize the strengths and contributions of your employees. Treat your staff the way you enjoy being treated.
- Promote a vision. Employees need a clear idea of where you're leading them, and they need to understand why the goals you emphasize are valuable to them and to the organization.
- Admit mistakes. Effective leaders realize that attempting to hide mistakes is much more damaging and erodes credibility. But, when they admit to making a mistake, they also do something to correct it.
- Criticize others only in private. Public praise encourages others to excel, but public criticism only embarrasses and alienates everyone.
- Display high credibility by fostering pride in the organization and a spirit of cooperation, teamwork, and personal responsibility among staff.
- Recognize and reward individual achievement and celebrate your team's successes.
- Do what they say they will do. They keep their promises and follow through on their commitments. They have a clear idea of what others value and what they can do to promote success.
- Believe in the worth of others. They know how to communicate the shared values that form a common ground on which all can stand. They create a climate for learning characterized by trust and openness.
- Are capable of making a difference in the lives of others. They arouse optimistic feelings in their employees and liberate the leadership skills in everyone under their command.