15 good leadership qualities to become an outstanding leader

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Have you ever met someone and instantly known that you would follow them? A good leader can inspire confidence, dedication and motivation from anyone.

While some lucky people are born natural leaders, others have to work hard to develop leadership skills and learn how to be a good leader. Luckily, developing excellent leadership skills can be fairly easy. You can create positive habits that help inspire those around you and develop critical thinking and practical communication skills to ensure you develop critical leadership qualities.

Read on to find out more about the attributes of a good leader, the essential leadership qualities you need, and how you can be a better leader.

Being a boss or a leader

If you're lucky, you've had a boss who was also a good leader. Someone you looked up to, who would fight your corner, inspire you to be better and motivate you.

However, many of us have bad bosses because being a boss or being in a management position doesn't automatically make you a good leader. There are plenty of bad bosses who are terrible leaders and plenty of excellent leaders who haven't yet been recognised by their company.

Because being a boss and being a leader is not the same thing.

There is a difference between telling someone what to do and then forcing them to do it and showing leadership, motivating them to get the work done themselves. A boss should be a good leader, and not everyone with leadership qualities is in management positions.

Bad leaders are generally very self-interested. They won't care about the success of others if it supports them and makes them look good, and they won't help you when you need it. Perhaps you've had a boss who was only interested in getting results and pushed you without taking any time to get to know what you need. Funnily enough, these people tend to be focused on results but never get the level of results they expect and then blame others rather than recognise their own failure.

You need to be a good leader before being a good boss. So, developing your own skills is crucial.

Why developing leadership skills is important for your career

At some point in your career, you will need others to help you reach success. It might be a team project, a business venture or a specific presentation, but you'll need others to help you even if you are an entrepreneur.

If you have bad leadership attributes and cannot inspire others to help and support you, you'll find yourself on your own. Everyone knows the importance of having the right people around you, but no one is willing to recognise that having good team members starts and ends with being a good team leader.

You need to look at the big picture. People that inspire and help others engender support and have more significant potential than those who don't. Being a good leader is crucial to getting a management role or into a higher position. Without these important leadership qualities, your career won't be able to progress beyond a low-level position.

15 Good leadership qualities

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Having great leadership qualities could be the reason your career isn't progressing. Learning what makes a good leader and what leadership quality can help you improve your skills and take the next step in your career. Here's what you need to know to have leadership attributes and be a great leader.

Be positive

As a leader, you want people to look up to you and literally follow your lead. If you believe you can succeed, others will too. Successful leaders go into challenging situations with a positive outlook. You need to look for routes to success to inspire others rather than focus on what went wrong.

If you lead your team from a place of negativity, this will rub off on the team members, and you will find them uninspired and unmotivated.

Having a positive attitude doesn't mean pretending to be happy every second of the day. If you face a major setback and act like it doesn't affect you, your team might question your sanity. But to be a better leader, try to look at the good in every situation. Turn failures into lessons and make it clear that even when it gets tough, you will still be there trying your best, and you'll find others are willing to stay by your side rather than leave in time of trouble.

Know your limits

I've worked with plenty of people who believe that being a leader means having all the answers. But this isn't true. To be a leader, you don't need to have a solution for everything; you need to know who has the answer.

Recognise your limits and know your own strengths. This way, you know when to lead from the front and when to hand over to other team members. This means you need to know what each of your team members has to offer and accept that sometimes, you might need to take advice and do what they say. A leader can still be a leader, even when they follow someone else's idea. Because yes, a leader

Listen

Listening to others is one of the most important aspects of being an effective leader. Good leaders listen to others' perspectives, listen to their team when they have complaints and listen to other people's ideas. Only by being a good listener can you understand the bigger picture and start making decisions and leading your team forward.

Not only that, but active listening and being a good listener shows others that they are valuable and that you care what they have to say.

Everyone knows that you need to have good communication skills to be a strong leader, but people usually focus on talking to others. Listening is as vital for effective communication as talking. Listening to your team will give them the confidence to speak to you. This means they will come to you for help and advice, and you can work together to solve problems. If you don't listen, you won't hear what needs to be done to succeed.

Be clear

Truly great leaders set clear expectations. You cannot expect your team to follow you if they aren't sure what they are aiming for. You need to make sure you clearly communicate both long-term and short-term goals and ensure you are available to answer questions.

Only when they know what you want can others follow. Set individual and team goals and make it clear what you expect then ask for direct reports. It's hard to follow a leader when you don't know what to do or what they want from you. According to the Predictive Index People Management Study, the primary reason managers were rated as being a "bad leader" was due to a lack of clear communication. Have a regular meeting with your team and each person individually and allow them to provide feedback and ask questions. Making sure that everyone is aware of what you expect of them and the entire team makes it easier for people to stay motivated.

Have a flexible approach

Chances are, you aren't going to get it right every time, and things won't always go smoothly. This means that if you want people to follow you through the hard times, you need to be flexible. Good leaders adapt to their situations and find creative and innovative ways to solve new problems. You need to come up with new ideas and have the self-confidence to try something new.

Great leaders are usually willing to experiment and try something new because they recognise that to get results you've never had before, you might need to do the task in a way that's never been done before. It's all about the future success of the team. If you can show your team that you are willing to be flexible and adapt to a situation, they are more likely to trust your decisions and follow you when things don't go according to plan.

Be genuine

An important foundation of being a great leader is having a team that trusts you. This means that you need to make them trust you. If you come across as false or deceptive, you will find that people don't want to follow you.

To be a better leader, you should try to be genuine. When you make a mistake, own it. When you are proud of your work, let others know. Show genuine interest in their problems and follow through on your word. When people trust you, they are happy to follow you and won't ask as many questions. It's all about people skills.

Plenty of bosses lack integrity because they feel they have to present a particular version of themselves. It's true that as a new leader, you can't act the same way as the rest of the team if you want them to look up to you, but you should still be yourself. Sharing part of who you are and getting to know people personally will help build trust and respect on a deeper level. Try making genuine connections with everyone on your team, even the most junior members.

Find your leadership style

There are many different leadership styles, and you need to find one that suits you. Some leaders use humour, sarcasm, and wit to defuse tense situations with real success. Other leaders address problems head-on to get them sorted and are also successful.

You need to find a leadership style that suits you, how you work, your team, and your strengths and weaknesses. There are four main styles, and most good leaders fit into one. Your style of leadership should also be appropriate for the team and the task, not just your personal choice. And you need to have self-awareness and know when to change between styles. One project might need a much firmer hand, and your team will appreciate having you in the lead, while another project might reach more success if you take a step back.

The four main styles of leadership to consider are:

• Autocratic leadership: strong decision-making, leading from the front, clear and authoritative, dictates goals and methods, no room for going off-book.
• Democratic leadership: includes others, partnership-style, individuals' opinions matter, everyone gets a say, but you have the final decision.
• Laissez-faire leadership: relaxed, taking a back seat, only stepping in to help when needed, setting goals but allowing different methods and paths to achieve a goal.
• Paternalistic Leadership: Gentle, inspiring respect and trust, firm when needed; others want to please you.

Delegate properly

Being an effective leader can be overwhelming, so you need to learn how to delegate effectively to be successful. Delegating tasks successfully within your team means everyone is happy, and you aren't overworked. Delegating effectively means maximising your team's productivity and the chance of success by giving the right tasks to the appropriate people.

Effectively delegating tasks saves everybody time, improves focus and boosts results with the best people doing the right jobs. When your team sees you making the right call and managing your workload, they will respect you and follow strong leadership. Delegating isn't just about making sure everyone is busy. In other words, proper delegation of tasks means every person is being used to their full potential to get the best result. Most leaders, especially outstanding leaders understand this concepts very well.

Be realistic

Sometimes, people don't lead well because they are too aspirational. You need to make sure your team has a realistic idea of the goals, and what success looks like. Keep it real, and be clear about where the team is, what's going wrong and how likely it is that you will succeed.

Strong leaders ensure they make realistic demands that can be carried out. You need to be realistic about deadlines and what you expect, or you might end up asking too much from your team, and they won't be able to deliver. The best leaders won't pretend that everything is going great when it isn't. Be honest and practical, and you'll find people respect your honesty.

Don't give up

Being a great leader means keeping going when others want to give up. It's not always easy at the top, and it's normal to feel frustrated or disappointed. But as a leader, you need to be the one picking people up after a letdown and adding energy back into the group when everyone is upset.

Resilience is a crucial element to being in a leadership position because you will undoubtedly need to overcome challenges. If you are the first person to give up when it gets tough, no one will want to follow you. Even if you feel hopeless, don't let your team see it. You need to keep going if you expect them to keep going.

Make decisions

Decision making is a major element of being a leader. Great leaders listens to others' opinions, weighs all the options, and then decides. No matter how democratic you are, you need to make a decision in the end. If you are someone that struggles to make a decision and agonises over if you've done the right thing, leadership might not be for you.

Even if you have to adapt things further down the line, making a decision and getting the ball rolling is super important. As a leader, people will look to you to make decisions when it gets complicated. If you can't decide, people won't come to you for an answer. To be a good leader, you need to give your team the confidence that even if you make the wrong choice, you will at least make a choice and start working.

Be accountable

True leaders hold people accountable, including yourself. A good team leader doesn't lay blame at the door of an individual. You need to keep the group accountable for the success or failure of the team. To be a good leader, you should ensure your team works together. If one person fails, the whole team fails, and you've failed to lead your team to success.

You need to make sure that if you make a mistake or someone else makes a mistake, you are the person taking the heat. In business, great leaders often accept the blame from their superiors instead of telling them that one person messed up. You are accountable for your whole team. Effective leaders know that sometimes, you have to take one for the team even if you didn't mess up.

Be disciplined

As a leader, you can't always do what you want. You won't get people to follow your leadership if you constantly react emotionally and keep making mistakes. Good leaders have to be self-disciplined and ensure that they manage their time and regulate their emotions.

Practice time management and make sure you cultivate daily habits that help you stay on top of your work. You should also discipline yourself to react logically, not emotionally. Great leaders hold themselves to a higher standard to motivate other people. Self-awareness is crucial to any leadership position because you need to know that you can make mistakes and have the emotional intelligence to not take it personally and then work on yourself to be better.

Stay humble

True leaders are always humble. As a leader, you are naturally in a position of power, whether it's an official position or just because people look up to you. But good leaders know that staying humble and grounded is absolutely essential. You might be in a position of power, but you should be working for the greater good. Although you are a leader, the team's success is the most important.

The best leaders always remember that it isn't about them. You should try to help others and understand that you will no longer be a leader as soon as others don't want to follow you. You are only a leader if others follow you, so don't let your other very positive and overwhelming qualities stop you from being there for others. As a leader, you should be supporting and helping others, not leaving them behind.

Believe in yourself

In a leadership role, you ask others to trust and believe in you. It is impossible to do this effectively if you don't believe in yourself. You need to be confident that you are the best person to lead this team to success, or others might start following someone else.

Being optimistic in the face of a challenge is one of the best leadership qualities you can have. You need to be confident that you can handle any situation. Even if you don't feel overly confident or have concerns, you need to act like you believe in yourself.

The leadership mindset

Some people are born to be great leaders and find influencing others and motivating them towards success very easy. However, for many people, becoming a leader is about slowly developing the qualities of a leader. Being a good leader is all about how you think and approach situations.

If you don't know where to start and want to develop good leadership skills, try looking at the list above and identifying which qualities you already possess and which you need to work on. Once you've found a skill you want to develop, find someone you think does it very well. It's great to learn directly from someone. Look at how they show this skill, when they use it and how they come across. Set yourself a goal to act in the way a few times a week. It'll be hard at first, but eventually, it will come to you naturally.

If you're really stuck, you can ask a colleague for help or speak to a professional life coach or business mentor who will be able to give you straightforward, actionable advice.

Developing your own leadership skills will help you push forward in your career and take on more responsibility. And don't forget that leadership skills can be helpful in every area of your life. Leading and influencing others can develop your personal relationships and help in every aspect of life, from planning a trip or doing chores to meeting new people or learning a new skill. Being a good leader starts with you, so start now.