Are You a Leader or Not?

Personality is different depending on who you are talking to. Your mom might call you driven, polite, and chivalrous. Your employees might feel a different way. What’s important is that your personality is a leader personality.

As an employer, wouldn’t you want to be the best leader for your company? Good leaders attract good employees. So what does a good leader look like? There is no cookie cutter answer despite what articles say because each industry is different. Some industries require blunt analytical leaders, while others require charismatic and social leaders. There are some overall traits you should check yourself for, but note that this is not a be-all end-all list.

Communicator

You have to know how to talk to people. You can’t lead a company through email. This is not to be confused with being an extrovert. Introverts can be successful leaders as well, especially because listening is half of communicating. It’s finding the balance between listening to what your employees have to say and being able to communicate what you need from them.

Ambitious

If you are content in the space that you’re in, you’ll never grow. A leader should want to move forward. That doesn’t mean you want to expand your company. Maybe it’s making enough money to paint your office or be able to send gifts to your clients. Maybe it’s having your name on a sponsor list at an important event. Whatever it is, a leader should always be striving for something.

Understanding

Life happens and a leader should be understanding. A leader with an iron fist often pushes people away. A good leader knows when to push and when to back off. If an employee feels like you will understand their circumstances, they will be more likely to want to work for you, because not all leaders understand that the people who are working for them are actually people.

Most importantly a leader is…

Human

You are not a machine, and neither are the people who work for you. We are all here trying to do something for some reason or another. Leaders should understand that working 70 hours a week is not something every person wants to do or can do. A leader should have emotions and should not be so far removed from the people who are making your company work that you think your employees are all workaholics who live to serve the machine.

If you have any other traits of a leader, comment them down below.