Am I (really) a Leader?

What is a leader? How can you identify if you’re actually a leader or not?  

What makes some leaders just good, and others great?

As an Executive, and Leadership Coach, you’d be surprised how many people I encounter who are leaders without even knowing that they are and how many of them desire to go from good to great, but aren’t sure what steps to take! 

In this blog, I’ll help you identify the leader within you -whether you chose your role on purpose or fell into it on accident, and five areas to start evaluating to determine whether or not you’re the leader that you strive to be. 

What is a Leader? 

In essence, a leader is someone who leads. Someone who coaches, inspires, and guides. A leader is someone who can take a team or group of people and motivate them during challenging times as well as keep them aligned and working towards sharing goals. A leader fosters collaboration, communication, and often steps in alongside their team members and leads by example. 

Some roles in which you might be a leader, without formally having a leadership title are perhaps as a coach, a consultant, a mentor, or even in a therapy or counseling role. If you are helping people take proactive steps and make decisions, you are a leader. If you inspire passion and motivation in others, you are a leader. And if you rally people towards a unified vision, you are most certainly a leader. 

What makes some leaders good and some great? 

In my experience, there are five qualities that set great leaders apart. In addition to having strong communication and interpersonal skills, as well as being able to manage and delegate tasks and responsibilities effectively, a leader must possess a number of soft skills that help them navigate challenges, make sound decisions, and understand the motivations and emotions of others. 

All of these are skills that can be learned and fostered over time to grow in your leadership skills, and many of them require a good hard honest look at yourself and a commitment to leaning into not just your strengths, but also areas in which you need to improve. 

Five Qualities of a
Great Leader  

Five Qualities of a Great Leader  

1. Grit
Grit, or resilience, is a leadership trait we often overlook. Many organizations have this built into their strategic plan, but it’s not always something that’s looked at internally and it’s such a key component to leadership. Grit allows you to persevere, even through the challenges of every day, and move forward rather than stay stagnant when obstacles arrive. Grit finds a path forward and a solution for just about anything you need to overcome. 

2. Self Awareness 
Self-awareness is of utmost importance as a leader and has many layers to it. It begins by being self-aware of your liabilities (weaknesses and challenges) as well as your strengths. Self-awareness also asks us to keep on digging and to start to see our blind spots. The things that are holding us back from our next level are typically hiding in plain sight and it’s up to us as leaders to expose them so we can begin to work on taking action. Self-awareness is noticing, taking responsibility, and doing the work to continuously grow in the areas in which we’re weak. Improving our self-awareness also helps us to improve our emotional intelligence as leaders as well, as we not only are able to understand our own internal worlds better but have more empathy for those around us too. 

3. Strength
Strength does not mean you have to do it all. Strength isn’t simply ignoring what’s going on and pushing through anyway. Strength isn’t about saying yes to everything and adding more to your plate. Strength is sometimes about raising your hand and asking for help, saying you can’t take something on, and strength is exposing the problems to address them head-on. It’s a willingness to take calculated risks as well as let someone else step in when you know you need them to. Strength is having uncomfortable conversations and sitting with large decisions. And there is great strength in being vulnerable and asking for help. As you grow in your personal strength, it begins to foster confidence inside you that will help you to be even stronger in who you are and build your inner knowing of how to handle situations effectively and empathetically. 

4. Authenticity 
A great leader is real. You don’t need to guess or try to read their minds on what they need and how they need it; they’re able to clearly ask and express what’s really going on and what they need. Authenticity is being comfortable being yourself, rather than who you think you “should be” or are “expected to be”. It also doesn’t mean you show everything and air all your dirty laundry to everyone. Authenticity is understanding where the boundaries are and being able to know what to share, when, and with whom, but not changing who you are for someone else. 

5. Adaptability 
Lastly, a key to being a great leader is adaptability. We’re being asked constantly to live through uncertainty, change, growth, and evolution. A great leader can adapt to the role they’ve been put in with grace, as changes occur culturally and organizationally. Being adaptable does not mean being a chameleon and morphing yourself into something that meets the expectations of others, it doesn’t mean learning to live in an environment that’s unsafe or is making you unhappy. Adaptability is all about knowing when to and being able to pivot and move through changes and shifts to continue to pursue the vision and goal. 

Which of these five traits do you feel is your strongest? Where do you think you come up short and need to lean into? Remember that each of these qualities of great leadership, they’re not developed overnight but can be fostered inside each of us as we commit to greater self-awareness and being the very best version of ourselves that we can be, personally and professionally.

Are you ready to take the next steps to hone your leadership qualities? Contact The Executive Leadership today.