Qualities That Great Leaders Must Have

Being a successful team leader requires having the right skills and developing the right qualities. The skills needed lead your team helps to motivate team members and achieve your goals. Developing qualities as a team leader will inspire trust, earn respect, and benefit your whole team.

Of course, every team is different and each department has their own goals and objectives. However, there are a number of qualities that all team leaders need to develop.

Let’s look in more detail at the best qualities a team leader can show and why they are so important.

1. Fairness

Treating everyone fairly is one of the most important qualities that you can bring to your team. Being a team leader, you set schedules, assign tasks, and delegate responsibility. Even though some in your team work better than others, it’s important to avoid showing preferences.

Showing true fairness will help to boost the camaraderie in your team and also help prevent a spirit of unhealthy competition.

One way to avoid showing favouritism is to occasionally have your manager look over your schedules and task assignments to get an objective opinion.

2. Good leaders lead by example

Your example sets the tone for the whole group and will affect the attitude of everyone else in the group. Saying one thing and doing another just erodes trust among team member and you may lose the respect of the group.

One way to lead by example is to work hard yourself and strive to meet the goals of the team and company. You can also lead by example by not taking part in idle office gossip or badmouthing others behind their back. Leading by example also means taking responsibility for your own mistakes and those of the team.

3. Show humility

Even though you need to be decisive and make difficult decisions, you can show great leadership by being humble. Sometimes, people think of humility as a weak quality and not one that great leaders have. However, humble leaders should have the self-confidence in themselves to not feel threatened by others.

For example, sometimes you have put your ego out of the way and admit when you are wrong. Or, it may mean giving others credit for their success and hard work.

4. Be prepared to take on unpleasant tasks

You can erode team morale if you are never seen to be willing to take on unpleasant tasks. Just because you are the team leader doesn’t mean you can delegate all the difficult projects to someone else.

For example, if you have a schedule for who makes the coffee, make sure that you are also down in the rota.

5. Show integrity

Most company executives agree that integrity is one of the most valued qualities in their employees. The reason that integrity is so important for team leaders is that it requires always being truthful. After all, you expect your team members to be truthful at all times. Show integrity to your company values and always follow company policy. This will show a good example of what you expect from the rest of your team.

Showing integrity also gives you a measure of freedom of speech if you have to reprimand a team member for failings when it comes to being truthful.

6. Resolve conflicts quickly

One important quality that team leaders should develop is alertness to quickly resolve conflicts. This usually requires a proactive approach as team leader to prevent unresolved issues festering. If you leave this too long, the problem can get quickly out of control and may affect the morale of your whole team.

7. Be a listener

As the team leader, you should always develop the qualities of active listening. Being a good listener doesn’t just mean hearing words that are being spoken. It means trying to understand what is really being said and what is not being said. Listening can help determine problems that team members are having and then give the correct solutions to those.

Listening and providing constructive feedback boosts the morale of your team and will increase your team’s effectiveness.

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