Qualities of Great Leaders

People often ask me about impressive leaders that I meet and they often want to know what are the typical characteristics of these leaders.

Here are my observations.

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Great Communication skills.

Not only do good leaders speak well on a large stage and capture everyone's attention and imagination, but they also know how to speak and connect with the little guy. People that can relate to all employees are the ones thy excel.

Even if it was briefly during a summer of university where they may have worked in a plant, they know how to speak and empathize and use that experience to connect with all types of personalities.

When people are able to engage at all levels of the organization, everyone drives in the same direction and desired results occur at a faster rate.

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Great leaders never get caught up with negativity.

They don't like complainers, pessimists or people who gossip.

They view negativity and cattiness as counterproductive and actions of people who will not progress in life.

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Good leaders are always looking for ways to improve and streamline the way they work.

They constantly view their surroundings and analyze what they are seeing and ask themselves why certain things are occurring?

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Great leaders are always cool under pressure. Even when people within the organization are panicking there calmness is reassuring to the company.

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Great leaders are not afraid to ask questions if they don't know the answer.

This is not as common as you might think as many people are afraid of not knowing something will be seen as a sign of weakness.

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Exceptional leaders do not crave to be liked by all.

They try to motivate and lead by example, but if some people are not willing to jump on the bandwagon, good leaders do not lose sleep over it.

They realize that those people will fall to the wayside with or without being pushed by the company.

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Good leaders are Genuinely interested in other people. You can't fake this skill. The leaders that have this skill have a head start on the rest of the pack.

Farewell,

Mike