When you consider the truly great leaders of our time whether that is in politics, business, not for profit, arts, or public sector they all share similar values and beliefs.
In today’s post, I want to share 8 key attitudes and beliefs of successful leaders.
First Some Definitions
Before I share the values and beliefs to consider, I want to explain what I am referring to and some descriptions.
What’s a Value?
Think of this as ‘what’s important to you’. It could be about being a leader, how you do business, your family, the kind of people you recruit, even the kind of company you choose to work with. In business, the common term used for what employee values are, is ‘what motivates them’.
What’s a Belief?
A belief is simply an opinion that someone has held for a period of time. It’s an acceptance that something exists or is true, especially when there is no apparent proof.
Let’s get started.
8 Attitudes and Beliefs of Successful Leaders
1. Integrity
Honesty and integrity are the foundations for any kind of success in my view whether that’s in a personal relationship or professionally as a leader. Leaders who walk their talk are coming from a place of integrity; this leads in time to my choice at No 2. Trust.
2. Trust
For any team to truly follow a leader, one who inspires them and who they feel they want to support through the highs and lows of business, trust is essential.
We only have to look back to the corporate failures of the late 90’s and the recession in 2008 to experience the impact on consumer confidence of a lack of trust within the financial services industry.
Fact: Team members won’t follow leaders who don’t do what they say they are going to do for very long.
3. Take Risks
Leaders who are willing to take more risks than their colleagues will be more successful. These risks will be considered without getting caught up in the indecision of over analysis. These leaders aren’t afraid of making mistakes. If they do, they learn from them and make sure they don’t repeat them.
4.Courage
Leaders, just like anyone else experience challenging times. It is courage that allows successful leaders to overcome challenges consistently and to do the things that others are less willing to do, even when they know, there is no guarantee of success.
5. Fairness
My experience working inside a corporate organisation and as an external trainer and facilitator in many other companies, is that people want to be treated fairly; irrespective of being a colleague, team member or client.
Leaders who I have seen and admired have always been able to navigate a path to success in a fair and just way.
6. Passion and Enthusiasm
A leader’s role is to inspire. This is always easy to do when a leader has genuine passion and enthusiasm for what they are doing. It’s easy to spot incongruence when this is lacking and all you can hear is, “the company talking”.
Call it a positive attitude, a can-do attitude, call it what you like, some leaders have an attitude that leaves no place for negativity, they will always look for an aspect of positivity even in the most difficult of circumstances.
Maxwell Maltz, the author of the famous book ‘Pyschocybernetics.’ said that ‘humans are success seeking beings’. When you are a leader who is passionate about what they are doing, it’s infectious.
7. Committed to Development
I am a huge believer in life-long learning and what makes successful leaders stand out is their commitment to their own education as well as to others. They recognise that a business only grows when it’s people grow too.
They are often avid readers, sometimes consuming a book a week. They will self-reflect and respond positively to feedback. They never stop doing what it takes to grow both professionally and personally.
They are also huge supporters of ‘learning’ within their organisations and encourage their team members and colleagues to own their development while investing time in mentoring and sponsoring top talent in and outside their organisation.
8. Humility
I remember reading Good to Great by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras years ago and being struck by their research. It showed that great leaders are not the classic charismatic types we have always thought. Instead, they have a compelling mixture of humility and will.
These are leaders who can ‘leave their ego at the door’ and put any personal interests to one side. Their focus is on what’s best and right for the business rather than pursuing their own agenda, getting caught up in politics or wanting to win a popularity contest.
This isn’t an exhaustive list, and there are other attitudes and beliefs that are important, and I’ll return to this important subject another time.
For now, ask yourself the question, are you walking your talk in terms of your values and beliefs as a leader? If not, what will you now do to change it?
And for those of you committed to development and enabling your team to grow, we’re giving you the opportunity to use our High Performance Decision Tree for FREE – if you haven’t already download it now.
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Until next time,
Julia [/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
