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Learn the four key leadership qualities that really stand out in creating a culture of performance in any organization.
Becoming a great leader can be difficult.
Whether you’re running a business, leading a team, or simply looking to move to a leadership role, it can feel overwhelming or impossible to pinpoint the specific qualities you should develop.
While we can’t cover every quality of strong leadership, we believe a few specific attributes make a difference in your leadership ability and create a performance culture throughout your organization.
This article discusses the four key leadership qualities and outlines several techniques to build your skills as a dynamic leader.
Four Key Leadership Qualities
Although there are many qualities a leader has to master, we believe that there are a few key leadership qualities that make dynamic leaders unique. Here are the four key leadership qualities that really stand out in creating a culture of performance in any organization:
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Leaders are Goal and Vision Focused
Dynamic leaders are goal and vision-focused. When leading a team, leaders who stay focused on the vision and goals have a destination in mind, and they empower their team to go after those goals.
Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.
Dynamic leaders clearly and passionately communicate their vision and goals, mobilize and motivate everyone to get on board, and allow their team to take ownership of their work.
Leaders who are goal and vision-focused build trust with and instill confidence in their team.
Here are two ways you can harness your goal and vision focus to be a more dynamic leader:
Share Why
A strong leader doesn’t need to be a visionary to inspire their team to work towards the organization’s vision and goals; they just need to effectively communicate the why.
To be successful, your team needs a clear understanding of their mission. To reach your goals, it’s your job to provide clarity and motivation to inspire others to follow your vision.
The challenge is to communicate that vision clearly and passionately. A compelling vision drives action.
To be a more dynamic leader, strive to convey your vision clearly and passionately. You might be surprised how you inspire colleagues to work with passion and purpose while ensuring that everyone is working toward the same goal. Consequently, you should then see everyone in your company is more driven to support the organization’s upward progress.
Check-In with Your Team
In addition to sharing their vision and goals, dynamic leaders check in with their team to ensure everyone is on the same page.
Engagement between dynamic leaders and teammates builds morale within the company. By establishing regular check-ins, leaders have the opportunity to gauge the priorities, obstacles, and solutions of their teams and make sure that everyone on the team understands the organizational vision and goals.
Through regular check-ins, both leaders and their teams gain insight into what is going well and identify areas that need improvement.
To be a more dynamic leader, use check-ins to ensure everyone on your team is on the same page and shares the same vision and goals.
Leaders are Outstanding Listeners
Dynamic leaders also must be outstanding listeners. Listening entails not just hearing someone talk but also comprehending their unspoken thoughts.
A skilled listener can view the world from the perspective of others. Listening allows them to grasp other points of view and see the broader picture. This also assists them in guiding people with diverse personalities and abilities toward a shared objective.
An ear to the ground also helps leaders predict what’s coming. Employees who feel heard are more inclined to keep their managers informed and share their thoughts and other information to help leaders make better decisions.
Here are three ways you can develop your listening skills to be a more dynamic leader:
Practice Listening
Dynamic leaders make efforts to spend more time listening. Being an engaged listener requires focus and determination, but the benefits are worthwhile.
Everyone likes being heard. When you listen, you make the speaker feel good. And, according to science, our brains are pre-programmed to find joy in being listened to.
Moreover, good leaders know that how much they listen and show that they are listening determines how much others share with them.
To be a better leader, practice actively listening. Avoid distractions and multi-tasking, and give whoever is speaking your full attention. As a result, you should find that others are more likely to share their ideas and input with you.
Validate
Dynamic leaders validate what they hear. Validating what the other person is saying is another way to show you are listening.
When someone shares something with you, ask them, “Is this what you are saying?” or “Is this what you meant?”.
By asking a few simple clarifying questions, you’re showing them that you are listening and making an effort to understand their point of view. Validation can immediately boost the speaker’s confidence, leading them to share more and share their ideas in the future.
Use Your Body Language to Show You Are Listening
Did you know that your body language and non-verbal communication conveys up to 70-93% of everything you communicate? It also is a good signal of whether someone is listening and interested.
Effective leaders understand how to communicate effectively and use their body language to their advantage. They can read the body language of others and control their body language to maximize their communication.
How does body language let you know if someone is listening?
Most of the time, when someone is listening, they will turn toward or face the speaker, make eye contact, display positive emotion, and give off other non-verbal cues.
Body language signals that show whether someone is listening (or not) include:
- Turning toward and facing the speaker, and lean slightly forward.
- Making appropriate eye contact
- Displaying positive emotions- smile and nod your head
- Avoiding looking anxious or bored- tapping feet, fingers, or objects, wringing your hands together
To be a more dynamic leader, pay attention to the body language of whomever you are speaking with. What does their body language convey?
And pay attention to your body language. Does it tell others that you are listening?
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Leaders are Accountable
You have already learned that dynamic leaders ensure that their goals and vision are well known. In the same manner, they understand the significance of listening to superiors, subordinates, and peers.
They are also ultimately responsible for the information, inputs, and organizational outcomes they plan and anticipate. When misunderstandings arise, dynamic leaders focus on their part in miscommunicating their message rather than the negative role performed by their team members.
Dynamic leaders accept accountability for bad consequences. While they do not tolerate underperformers, they hold themselves accountable for both the positive and negative performance of people around them. They are the first to listen and the last to talk.
This might be difficult, but it is critical. Taking accountability fosters trust and respect, and it serves as an example for their employees and team. Your leadership responsibility is critical for preserving confidence among colleagues, which can impact everything from clear communication to employee engagement.
Here are two ways in which you can be a more dynamic leader through accountability:
Hold Yourself and Your Team Accountable
Dynamic leaders take accountability for the team’s actions and results and seek insight into improving as a leader. Keep in mind that every member is responsible for the success and failures of the team. Leaders understand their roles in the success of their team.
Leaders also hold team members accountable for their actions/results and how they affect the team. Accountability teaches team members to take responsibility for their actions or lack thereof.
Accountability allows team members to reassess the company’s visions, set SMART goals, and execute a plan effectively. Leaders who hold themselves accountable build team morale, reminding team members that they are also responsible for the team’s success.
To be a better leader, hold your team accountable, starting with yourself.
Set SMART Goals
Dynamic leaders set SMART goals. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based. By setting SMART goals, team members will fully understand what the goals are and the plan of execution.
In addition to setting SMART goals, you must also hold your team accountable for attaining those goals. This includes establishing incentive and disciplinary programs and administering them fairly.
Establishing an incentive program allows dynamic leaders the opportunity to express gratitude towards team members. Moreover, incentive programs balance well when paired with a disciplinary action program.
Disciplinary actions are consequences leaders have to enforce to maintain the team’s success. As a result, leaders and team members alike are aware of personal responsibilities and have clear tools to measure their success and failures; in turn, the team gets to hold all of its members accountable.
To be a more dynamic leader, make your goals SMART, and hold your team accountable by rewarding outstanding action with incentives and holding them accountable with disciplinary action when warranted.
Leaders are Assertive
Another top quality of strong, effective leaders is that they lead with assertive tact. What does this mean?
To lead with an assertive tact, you guarantee that the team wins. Leaders are able to assert the company’s vision and align them with the goals and responsibilities of teammates. Dynamic leaders express their wants and needs firmly, with fairness and empathy, establishing authority while assuring teammates that everyone is part of the team and shares the same goals and visions.
Even more so, dynamic leaders push toward their goals and visions with the win-win in mind, not only focusing on their own needs, but also on the needs of their team.
Dynamic leaders are self-aware of their values and strengths so that leaders are confident and approach the situation with tact without becoming agitated or aggressive with their team. Dynamic leaders are also aware of teammates’ strengths and values that they add to the team and can use that to develop win-win solutions.
Here are two ways to harness your assertiveness:
Find the Win-Win
Dynamic leaders lead with a win-win outcome in mind. Win-Win conditions are those in which solutions or agreements are mutually useful and gratifying.
A win-win mindset approaches life as a cooperative arena instead of a competitive one. It is an emotional and mental state that seeks mutual gain in all of one’s relationships.
Finding the Win-Win is not about being kind, and it is not a quick-fix solution. Instead, it is a code adhered to by dynamic leaders. Dynamic leaders load the dice by avoiding the employment of defensive behavioral styles and focusing on constructive ones, increasing the probability of achieving a Win-Win result.
To be a more dynamic leader, pursue win-win solutions. But, first, you will need to be both confident and empathetic. And you must be kind and sympathetic, but also courageous. To do so–to strike that balance between boldness and consideration–is the core of true maturity and is essential to finding win-win solutions.
Influence and Persuade
Dynamic leaders are passionate, influential, and persuasive. They do not have to order their employees to complete a task. Rather, they are passionate about the organization’s mission, vision, and goals and use their ability to influence and persuade to create a performance-driven culture where everyone is proud to contribute.
Dynamic leaders understand Aristotle’s rules of rhetoric- the Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. Notice, these are closely related to the other key leadership qualities.
Ethos- harnessing your credibility and character to influence and persuade. What establishes your credibility with your team? Having a vision and goal focus. Being a good listener. Holding yourself accountable.
Pathos- appealing to emotion. How do dynamic leaders appeal to emotion? Through their vision and goals. Through their passion. And through justice and seeking the win-win.
And Logos- appealing to logic and reason. Dynamic leaders appeal to logic and reason through their vision and goals, by sharing why, and by listening, understanding, and steering their team toward the same vision.
To be a more dynamic leader, lead by example, and use your influence and persuasion to build a performance culture in your organization.
In the end, great leaders run successful companies because they adopt dynamic leadership practices that forge a culture of performance, create an engaged workforce, and enhance performance and profit. Now that you have the top 4 leadership qualities, you can start putting them into action. But, if you want to dive deeper into each of these qualities and take your leadership to the next level with certified in-depth training, download the 11-course Dynamic Leadership Series.
