Leadership is a process of social influence where an individual enlists the aid of others to accomplish a common task. As cliché as it may sound, leaders can make or break an organization. Outstanding leadership leads to positive changes and growth, while ineffective leadership fosters negativity and stagnation.
What distinguishes the best leaders is not a mysterious charisma or an elusive “X” quality. Instead, great leaders have honed specific habits directly contributing to their success. By analyzing the common traits of influential leaders, we can identify eight essential habits that form the core of outstanding leadership.
1. Self Awareness and Continuous Learning
Self-awareness provides a foundation for growth and development in leadership roles. Similarly, a commitment to continuous learning helps leaders stay motivated while expanding their capabilities.
Embracing Self-awareness
Self-awareness for leaders starts with understanding their strengths, weaknesses, biases, and behavioral patterns. For example, Introspective activities like journaling, regular self-assessments, and seeking constructive feedback help enhance self-understanding. Greater self-awareness allows leaders better to manage their emotions, interactions, and decisions.
Commitment to Continuous Learning
In dynamic environments, leaders must update their knowledge and skills continuously. Some effective techniques are reading industry publications, taking courses, and attending conferences. For instance, Alex studied emerging Fintech innovations to help his company stay competitive. Lifelong learning across domains allows leaders to lead more effectively.
2. Effective Communication
Clear communication and engaged listening promote transparency and trust within teams. Leaders adept at these skills can synthesize ideas better while coordinating more efficiently.
Clarity in Communication
When leaders express ideas clearly, teams grasp objectives accurately. Using simple language, sharing context, and emphasizing key points facilitate understanding. For example, Eva provided background before asking her engineers to modify product designs—this improved alignment. Leaders must also confirm that their message is adequately absorbed.
Active Listening
Quality listening enables leaders to incorporate others’ perspectives. Asking thoughtful questions, allowing team members to clarify doubts, and summarizing discussions demonstrate engaged listening. These actions also make colleagues feel heard and valued. For instance, active listening helped Mark resolve a conflict rapidly by uncovering his sales team’s underlying needs.
3. Vision and Inspiration
A compelling vision gives teams a shared purpose and direction. Inspiring leadership galvanizes colleagues to work towards realizing that vision collaboratively.
Setting a Clear Vision
Influential leaders define an aspirational yet achievable vision for their organizations. For example, Steve Jobs envisioned democratizing computers with simple, elegant, and user-friendly products. Communicating strategic vision helps teams align planning, design, and production activities. It also motivates them to challenge themselves.
Inspiring Others
Inspirational leaders encourage colleagues to adopt lofty visions as their own. They emphasize how each person’s role contributes towards the larger goal. For instance, influenza vaccination rates increased dramatically when health officials highlighted how it would curb deaths among children and the elderly. Inspired teams often accomplish more than what was imagined possible.
4. Decisiveness and Accountability
Leaders must make complex decisions under tight timelines and uncertainty in dynamic situations. Great leaders foster accountability in themselves before demanding it from others.
Making Decisions Effectively
Influential leaders take responsibility for making prompt decisions by weighing multiple factors and inputs. While being consultative, they avoid “analysis paralysis”. For example, Rita gathered adequate input before migrating legacy platforms to cloud-based servers ahead of her competition. Decisive timing gave her business an edge.
Holding Oneself Accountable
Great leaders hold themselves accountable even if projects derail. They proactively identify process gaps and guide adaptations rather than blaming external factors or team members. Such a responsible culture drives organizational maturity. For example, Brian apologized for a product delay by acknowledging coordination issues between engineering and sales teams. He then worked to streamline future collaborations.
5. Building Relationships
Leadership is ultimately about people. Nurturing relationships, facilitating collaborations, and resolving conflicts produce thriving teams. Expanding professional networks also increases learning opportunities.
Fostering Team Collaboration
When leaders encourage camaraderie and praise cross-functional efforts, they build cooperative teams. Rachel boosted participation in her firm’s volunteer group by regularly recognizing contributors. She also organized informal gatherings so members got to know each other better. Such activities strengthen interpersonal bonds.
Networking and External Relationships
Developing meaningful connections beyond one’s team exposes leaders to new ideas and best practices. Attending conferences, joining industry bodies, and connecting with mentors help expand professional networks. For instance, advisor introductions helped Alex secure early-stage funding from prominent investors to scale up his high-potential startup.
6. Adaptability and Resilience
Leaders must adapt rapidly in times of change and crisis while demonstrating resilience. Their behavior sets the tone for organizational cultures.
Embracing Change
Visionary leaders prepare teams to pivot in response to both threats and opportunities. They focus on enhancing organizational resilience to minimize business disruptions. For example, DigiCorp trained employees in digital technologies before competitors. This facilitated a smooth transition during unpredictable market shifts. Leaders must exude patience and optimism when overseeing significant changes.
Resilience in the Face of Challenges
Great leaders display grace under fire. Amidst crises that test their resolve, they provide hope and steadfastly guide teams. For instance, Mayor Garcia calmly coordinated relief efforts after flash floods devastated the town. His compassionate response and decisiveness accelerated rehabilitation efforts. Such resilient leadership in trying times helps organizations bounce back stronger.
7. Integrity and Ethics
Outstanding leadership means guiding teams to achieve organizational goals ethically and responsibly. Leaders who walk this talk earn widespread trust and respect.
Leading with Integrity
Leaders with integrity follow both words with action and principles with policies. They openly acknowledge mistakes rather than obscuring them, reinforcing team trust and transparency. Colleagues are inspired to emulate their high standards. For instance, Alice ensured gender-equitable hiring despite prevailing norms. Her bold integrity as founder and CEO defined her feminist organization’s culture.
Commitment to Ethics
Ethical leaders infuse values like sustainability, transparency, and diversity into operations. The responsible policies they champion reflect in team attitudes at crunch points. For example, denying unethical demands from large clients showed employees that their wellness-focused CEO valued people over profits. Such cultures intrinsically motivate teams to advance shared ideals.
8. Empowering Others
Great leaders focus on nurturing skills and ownership in colleagues to develop future-ready and inspired teams.
Delegation and Empowerment
Thoughtfully delegating complex tasks conveys trust in others’ abilities while lightening leaders’ loads. However, leaders must provide context, checkpoints, and backup support to set up colleagues for success. When empowered thus, teams feel confident tackling greater responsibilities. For instance, when delegating to junior engineers, Ethan broke down a project into stages with clear directives. He reviewed progress periodically but avoided micromanaging.
Mentoring and Development
Successful leaders leverage their experience to mentor promising talent. They multiply their positive impact by teaching core domain skills and leadership qualities. They create enrichment opportunities like high visibility projects, cross-training, and global exchanges tailored to each individual. Such guidance accelerates colleagues’ growth trajectories. For example, Julia’s extensive coaching helped shape Alex’s journey from intern to market leader.
Self-awareness, perpetual learning, strategic vision, and ethical integrity enable influential leadership. Meanwhile, clear communication, fruitful collaborations, and nurturing talent translate that impact into collective achievement. Internalizing such habits allows ordinary managers to transform into extraordinary leaders capable of steering their teams through adversity and capturing opportunity. The highest expression of leadership remains serving others’ growth.
Case Study: Eva’s Leadership Journey
Eva Langley was an engineering group manager struggling with low engagement and lackluster output. Her 360-degree feedback highlighted poor communication, inadequate strategic vision, and limited relationships beyond her core team. Lacking self-awareness, too, Eva failed to empower junior colleagues despite her firm’s mentorship culture.
Eva invested in executive coaching and leadership workshops over 18 months, determined to improve. She learned the hallmarks of outstanding leadership and committed to internalizing them through conscious practice.
Eva began proactively seeking feedback while reviewing her behavior more objectively, enhancing self-awareness. Simultaneously, expanding her reading and attending tech conferences helped her better articulate a strategic vision to inspire teams. Eva also focused on clarity while explaining technical concepts to cross-functional partners. Applying active listening techniques improved her conflict-resolution abilities as well.
Conscious delegation and acknowledging team contributions made colleagues feel empowered under her guidance. She also built external networks and exposed Eva to best management practices. Despite early discomfort, Eva’s resilience and integrity enabled her successful transition to an empowering servant leader committed to continuous improvement. Over time, even cynics within her team responded to her new leadership style.
Eventually, Eva ranked among the firm’s most trusted and influential leaders. Beyond quantifiable metric improvements, she treasured the rich bonds forged with colleagues the most. Through a self-driven journey of growth, Eva proved that the hallmarks of outstanding leadership can be cultivated with perseverance.
Key Takeaways
- Self-awareness, continuous learning, and strategic vision separate influential leaders from average managers.
- Clear communication, engaged listening, and constructive collaboration also characterize outstanding leadership.
- Decisive accountability, adaptability amid uncertainty, and grace under pressure are vital.
- Integrity, responsible ethics, and nurturing talent multiply positive impacts.
- By internalizing such habits, leaders can steer teams to shared success sustainably.
Conclusion
The journey of leadership is ultimately a process of continuous growth marked by self-evolution. At the same time, natural talent and charisma may propel some individuals into critical positions, and sustaining impact over time demands conscious self-cultivation. Ordinary managers can transform into extraordinary leaders by imbibing the eight habits outlined here.
The foundational habits of self-awareness and thirst for knowledge distinguish influential leaders from average ones—the vision to identify new possibilities and the ability to enunciate strategy to teams set great leaders apart clearly. Meanwhile, the softer skills of communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution enable the translation of this vision into reality. Navigating change gracefully and bouncing back stronger in times of crisis is also vital.
