My experience with leaders

Over the past years, I have worked with a good number of people in various fields. We can distinctly draw a pattern or pen down personality traits of what makes one a effective leader.

Effective leaders are joyous and fun. One of the main reasons they are good leaders is because they have eager followers. People like to follow leaders who are fun and who demonstrate obvious joy in their lives. After all, who wants to follow a grumpy and joyless leader?

Effective leaders have a strong work ethic. In fact, one of the greatest challenges of these leaders is maintaining balance. They are prone to be on the task 24/7.

Effective leaders are self-aware. They are able to see their strengths and weaknesses with a great deal of objectivity. They seek out critical evaluations from people they trust to tell them the truth. Because they are self-aware, they are constantly seeking to improve.

Effective leaders take initiative. These leaders do not need to be prodded to complete a task. To the contrary, they go well beyond others’ expectation. Good managers complete an assigned task. But good leaders are regularly envisioning a better way and better strategy.

Effective leaders love people. Some effective leaders are extroverts; they are energized when they are around people. Other effective leaders are introverts. Put them in a crowd sharing small talk, and they will be drained by the end of the day. But both types of leaders have a love for people. They truly care about others.

Effective leaders are tenacious. You rarely hear about them giving up. While others may view a setback as failure, the effective leaders see it as an opportunity to move in another direction.

But the good news is one can easily develop all of these skills. For some it may just come naturally but for some they might have to work on the same.