If you are a manager, team head, leader, or C-Suite executive, I want you to ask yourself a couple of questions- 

• Do you feel respected at work?
• Do your team and colleagues like you?
• Does your team listen to what you say?
• Are you able to build trust within the team?

If your answer is “no” to any of the above questions, you should be paying attention to what this article is about.

The above four questions and their negative answers are closely related to leadership traits and qualities. Therefore, the need of the hour is for you to work on your leadership style to bridge the gap between you and your employees.  

You need to develop a new set of skills or qualities within yourself to become a great leader.

Great leaders don’t demand or order respect from their fellow employees; they earn respect through their leadership qualities and skills. 

Are you keen to know more about acquiring the best leadership skills today? 

Awesome!

In this article, I have listed down 10 Leadership Qualities that you need to master. This will not only help you emerge as a true leader but will also help you improve the productivity of your team. 

Let’s dive in.

10 Leadership Qualities You Should Possess to Gain Respect as a Leader:

 1: Be Transparent

According to a study, 57% of employees quit their jobs because they are dissatisfied with their leader. Another 32% of employees change companies because of their managers.

Transparency is the most powerful leadership quality you can add to your managerial toolkit. Transparency helps build trust with your employees and teams. It also works to promote team spirit, creativity, and loyalty.

A transparent leader leads with honesty and openness. He or she is not scared to share information that can help employees do better at their job profiles. Being transparent has a positive impact on improving an organization’s internal communication. 

Make sure you are transparent with your employees about the opportunities and challenges within the organization. Give them a concise and clear picture of what they can expect from you and what you expect from them. 

2: Give Respect:

This is a fundamental human principle: To gain respect from others, you have to give respect to them.

This does not even concern itself exclusively with professional work ecosystems. This is something that all of us should practice in our personal lives as well. 

If you want your employees and team members to respect you, the first and foremost thing you need to do is to show them the respect they deserve.

Being a leader, you have to treat all your employees fairly and make sure you value them with your actions, not just with your words. Make your employees feel that you are always approachable and eager to listen to their feedback and concerns. You also need to make sure that your employees feel that once they have communicated their concerns, the same will be addressed on a priority basis. 

Communicating with your employees regularly and sharing vital decisions with them, will make them feel respected. 

3. Show Your Work Ethic:

Be an example of a great leader by exemplifying a strong work ethic towards your employees and team members. Become an integral and reliable part of the team and organization that adds value and invokes trust.

Are you wondering about what work ethic is? Is it a quality or trait that must be possessed by any leaders? 

You might have heard the phrase- lead from the front. A leader is expected to set the benchmark in terms of work productivity. If as a leader, you are not working the hardest in your organization, you cannot expect your employees to do the same. 

A leader is expected to set an example for all the employees in the company as far as pursuing a strong work ethic is concerned. 

This is a standard code of behavior that defines how you think and work in an ethical way for the organization or employees.

4. Be Consistent

Most probably, you have heard about “ Consistency is the Key.” 

It’s 100% true that consistency is the key to success. The same applies to the leaders and their success stories. 

As a leader, you should be very consistent in your leadership style, organizational goals, and expectations from employees to understand what you are expecting from them.

If there is inconsistency in your leadership style and changes from time to time, they will be distracted and confused.

Let’s take an example.

You have given your employees complete freedom to make decisions on their own for a project, and after a few days, you end up micromanaging the same.

This is an approach that most leaders are guilty of. This helps create underconfident teams that will keep running to you in the event of a crisis. You want your employees to be confident and brave about the decisions they are making. 

Being consistent builds trust among the team and improves the overall productivity of the business.

5: Admit Your Wrongdoings

All humans make mistakes. All leaders are human, and your employees know you will make certain mistakes from time to time. 

In this situation, the most important thing is acknowledging your wrongdoings, learning from your mistakes, and knowing how to bounce back. It will set a clear example among the employees. 

Don’t try to showcase you know everything as a leader, and don’t be afraid of asking for help from your employees to correct your mistakes. Your employee will notice and respect you for the same.

If your employees are able to see how their leader is committed to admitting mistakes and working on the same, they will end up doing the same. This will help build a positive company culture. 

6: Seek Out Opinions

As I stated earlier, you may not know all the things and may not come up with the best ideas all the time. So, seek out opinions from your team or employees. 

Every employee is unique in their knowledge, skills, experiences, and perspective. As a leader, you should appreciate and welcome their suggestions.

Being open to new opinions shows that you value their suggestions, are flexible, and are committed to follow and act on their ideas. 

This is how the best companies have grown. There is a reason why you must have hired that employee in the first place. If we are looking to be successful, all of us need to keep learning all the time. 

There is no fault in admitting that you do not know something. The important thing to know is that you are willing to learn and improve yourself. This will make your employees not only learn from you but respect you as well. 

7: Recognize Success

Every success on the professional path needs to be celebrated. It doesn’t matter how big or small the winnings are. The aim is to create a positive environment in the workplace.

You can recognize your team and employees by praising them publicly or privately for their accomplishments. Encouraging someone when they have done something right will help set the right tone of professionalism.

This will create eager employees who will always be looking to outperform others in the hopes that their boss will appreciate their performance. 

Recognizing your team and employees in the way they wish, demonstrates that you care about them for their excellent work. It also helps in building a supportive work environment.

8: Don’t Micromanage

First, let me give you a little brief about what ‘Micromanagement’ means. 

As it sounds, micromanagement is a style of management, where a manager personally controls and monitors everything on a team or a project.

Micromanagement is indeed effective when the team is small or new. As a manager or project head, you can micromanage the team or projects to avoid mistakes and delays. But in the long term, it creates enormous problems for the team or the organization.

If your team and employees are competent to manage the whole project, you should trust them and give them complete freedom. As a good leader or manager, set clear objectives and deadlines for the task or project.

Let them know you are always available to guide and talk if they have any issues. 

Delegating tasks and giving complete ownership of the projects will build the trust and confidence of your employees.

If you are micromanaging large teams or projects, your employees will never get the exposure to handle the risks, challenges, and opportunities. 

Every time there will be a problem, they will keep running back to you. This is something that you do not want to happen at any cost.

9: Don’t Pick Favorites

I hope, as a leader, you will not promote any negative workplace politics. This has the effect of making your employees disengaged and distracted.

Your employees and team members may not like it if you play favorites in the office. Being a leader, you should show the same level of support to all your employees.

As soon as your employees feel that you are very fair in your leadership, they will start to trust and respect you.

Not taking sides, dealing with everyone equally, and paying attention uniformly will help show your professionalism. 

10. Be Innovative

As the innovative leader, Steve Jobs himself said, ‘Innovations distinguish between a leader and a follower.’

Innovative leaders are good listeners. They listen to everyone actively and also motivate others to think out of the box. Innovative leaders promote open communication between the team and organization for new and innovative ideas.

Innovative leaders are responsible for building companies that have managed to challenge the norm. They have been at the forefront of helming changes that have pushed their employees towards excellence and success. 

Conclusion

The debate on whether one is born a leader or not begs a separate article in its own right. However, a lot of the leadership qualities that have been mentioned in the article can be learned. 

You need to have the right intentions and create the best habits. There is no shortcut to becoming a great leader, you need the right leadership qualities that can shape you.

Which leadership qualities are your favorite? Do let me know in the comments section.

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