What kinds of the traits would you like to see in your dream leader?
Very good question. I do hope you get good inputs.
What I see very essential is the ability to lead a team without being dominant. It is a rare quality.
What kinds of the traits would you like to see in your dream leader?
Dear Rai, these are the traits I will want to see in my effective leader
- Emotional stability. Good leaders must be able to tolerate frustration and stress.
- Dominance.
- Enthusiasm.
- Conscientiousness.
- Social boldness.
- Tough-mindedness.
- Self-assurance.
- Compulsiveness.
I expect to see my dream leader to have the following characteristics;
The fear of God in a person will be the first. Innovative. Ability to serve. Confident.
"The leader is someone who inspires me, cares about me as a person, works with me and with others to achieve a vision or a common goal."
Great discussion Rai!! I agree with Farid. Dream leaders are for dreamers. I would prefer the question "what are the attributes I need to be a great (dream) leader?" This makes it much more personal and real.
Unfortunately, our brain default (our stone-age brain) is to think too much about the tough attributes of leadership because that is how we (especially men) would like to see our macho self image. See the difference in the views of men and women in this discussion!! Excellent leadership is impossible without the soft attributes of humility, fairness, love, patience, forgiveness (think Mandela!). That is why a blended senior leadership team of men and women is best. In essence a great leader needs to be able to manage their emotions and their ego effectively. Not many do!! See "Leading Beyond The Ego" amongst my book publications for more details. or go to https://www.leadershapeglobal.com/lbte
Hi Rai, here are the attributes of my dream leader :
- Extraverted
- Positive, self confident
- Using his, her power for the benefits of others
- motivated to psursue goals
- integrity, strong moral principles, thruthful
- knowledge of his field of activity
- above average cognitive intelligenc
- emotional and social intelligence, recognizing and regulating his, her emotions and emotions of others
Have to say I somewhat disagree with you John. Believing that people will naturally have certain leadership traits due to their gender is not something I adhere to. Some of the hardest, unfeeling leaders I've known have been female and I've known some compassionate, kind but highly effective leaders who were male - their gender had little (if anything) to do with it.
However, as someone responsible in organisations for having introduced leadership development for both women and ethnic minority groups, I strongly agree that diversity in leadership (of gender, race, background, style and thought) is really important.
My dream leader must be honest, visionary, a good human being, and hard worker.
Morale fortitude, knowledge, understanding, engagement, wise, tact, self-confidence, endurance, tact, trust, courage to do the right thing, patience, dependability, share success, assume responsibility for failure, bearing and reliability.
He should not be a liar and deceptive person. He should be visionary and kind enough. He should be lover of humanity.
Hardworking, having stability in nature, having art to work and get complete the tasks, having sense of humour, having vision to lead everyone.
The kinds of the traits that I would like to see in my dream leader are:
They should exude confidence
Confidence may not bring success, but it gives the power to face any challenge. This quote sums up everything one must know about confidence, and why it is one of the most important personality traits that charismatic leaders possess.
Confidence makes you do things, which others think are not possible. A person exuding confidence brings that sense of energy and positivity along, which inspires people around that person to get charged up. This is the reason that charismatic leaders are known to charge up the environment with positivity, wherever they go.
They should have a keen eye for the future
No, they are not fortune tellers. But, yes they are nothing less than that as well. They predict fortune, but with their vision rather than making an lame predictions.
Charismatic leaders know that future lies in innovation, and that’s exactly what they inspire their team members to yearn for. Look at the stories of the most successful business leaders, whether it was Bill Gates or Elon Musk, they did not predict the future, rather they created it with their own hands by bringing revolutionary technology in computers and renewable resources. There is no doubt we all can take a leaf or two out of their book of leadership.
They shouldn’t do things the ordinary way
How can you expect to become a stand out leader if you continue to do the things that every other leader is doing. Charismatic leaders know that doing things the ordinary way will yield no new results. Like Einstein once said — doing the same thing, over and over again, and expecting different results is insanity.
This is exactly what separates charismatic leaders from the horde of others that exist out there. Charismatic leaders are never satisfied with ordinary. If something is being done in a simple way, they don’t settle unless they find a simpler way than the existing one. This is one of the key reasons why they are able to come up with innovative thoughts, and inspire their team for achieving the same.
They shouldn’t stop until they are done
Most important of all, such leaders leave everyone tongue tied with their iron-man like determination. With their never say never attitude, charismatic leaders are able to do the unthinkable and achieve the unachievable.
They believe in the fact that tough times don’t last, tough leaders do. Steve Jobs was pushed out of Apple, but he came to take Apple from being down in the doldrums to making it one of the most successful companies of all times. More recently, we all are well-versed with the determination that Elon Musk has shown with his company SpaceX. The bottom line is, when charismatic leaders face challenges, it does not bring them down — it brings the best in them!
They should learn from their mistakes
We all make mistakes; so do charismatic leaders. After all, to err is human, right? However, the one thing that makes these leaders different from others is the fact that they don’t think of mistakes as failure or something negative. They think of these mistakes as a way to learn.
If there's a will, there's always a way.
In leadership, it's intensity or power is measured by winning and losing. Winning and losing is part of our lives. The important thing is to keep trying and believing in your abilities to be a winner and achieve something good.
Whether you are a competitive person or not, every day you have to make a choice. Every day you must decide whether you want to be a winner or a loser. It doesn’t matter what you go through and what the outcome is, you must decide which one you will be.
In order to proceed, we must make sure that we are aligned in the concepts of winning or losing. I feel that these two words have taken very strong negative meanings in recent time. Especially the word loser which tends to be associated with failure. Or in the case of winners, which can be attributed to having a jerkish and selfish attitude. So for the sake of this post, I will ask you to put on your growth mindset hat.
In a growth mindset, we will define the winner as the person who grows from having gone through the experience (regardless of winning or losing). And the loser will be the person who decides not to grow from it. I’ll explain:
As it turns out, there are some areas of your life in which you are a winner and others in which you are a loser. It’s all on the way you decide to approach the experiences that you go through. The easiest way to know which ones are which is by taking a moment to think about the things that you love doing and the ones you don’t like so much. If you are looking to grow whether you like the activity or not, then you are winning. If you are just running away from it because you are not “good” at it, then you are losing.
The qualities are what will make you win at winning. Let’s assume you love running. You try to do it as often as you can. With time, it has become easier and you feel comfortable with the idea of taking bigger challenges. Before you know it, you are running marathons and triathlons. Quick question: What would be the difference between the person who actually wins those races to lead and you?
More than the physical and the experience, the big difference is in your mindset. The difference between the two of you is in the fact that only one of you wants to win. Let’s say you also want to win, then I ask you. How bad did you really want to win? Did you rather practice than go to sleep or party? Did you think eating was a waste of time because it didn’t let you practice? The whole thing is in how you handle the situation and your actual goals. But, in a fixed mindset, you would believe that you will never be able to win because you don’t have this or that. So to “protect” yourself from “failing,” you tell yourself that you only train because you enjoy it.
In a growth mindset, you protect yourself by growing your comfort zone. By trying to become better at the things you do. So when you lose, you just take this as feedback that you are not ready. Pushing yourself to work harder and try again. Eventually, you will make it. That is why in your everyday life, you must choose whether you will be a winner or a loser. And you can increase your chances of winning at whatever you do by developing a set of qualities.
You actually have these qualities already, you just don’t apply them to every area of your life. To find them, just take a look at those moments in which you do the things you love, those moments in which you really want to win. I’m sure you will find them in you.
Now some of leadership traits:-
#1 Conviction
You don’t doubt, you believe in yourself, you know you are good. You know that you are capable of performing because you developed the skills. This allows you to make fast decisions and stand behind them.
#2 Determination
You WANT IT! and you want it bad! You just want to continue developing and getting better at it. For you, there is no other choice around it. You are determined to push your limits further than your competitors.
#3 Empathy
You have the ability to understand how others feel and think. This makes you capable of seeing things from their perspectives, allowing you to learn from their perspectives, allowing you to learn from their mistakes, their skills and connect with others who love what you love.
#4 Preparation
You have a plan. You have prepared a strategy that will take you to develop the skills you need and you do your homework, over and over. When they eat, you practice; when they sleep, you practice; when they party, you practice.
#5 Self-Awareness
You know your flaws, your weaknesses, and strengths. You focus on making your weak points stronger and your strengths even stronger. You know how others perceive you and you use this to your advantage.
#6 Coordination
You are able to work with others. You understand the need to delegate and given you empathetic skills and preparation and conviction, you are able to coordinate others into the overall plan.
Your self-awareness allows you to deal with the fact that you are not the smartest in the team and gives you the spaces to make others excel, creating a culture of synergy in your project.
#7 Communication Skills
You are able to communicate your ideas, your vision. You clearly transmit your ideas onto other people’s head. You inspire them to see, feel, taste and smell the final goal.
#8 Vision
You need to know where you want to go or at least have an idea so that others can get on board and support you. This idea will fuel your motivation to continue working your way to winning. It will also give you the space to adapt your plans as your learn more along the way.
#9 Emotional Intelligence
You are able to think rationally and not emotionally during situations that require you to make quick decisions. Supported by your empathetic skills and your self-awareness, you manage to lead yourself regardless of the environment around you.
All this means that…
In order for you to win, you need to believe that you can actually win, you need to believe that something else can happen. You actually need to want to win and then work your way from there. If you don’t win, it only means that you are not ready yet. That is all! Just get back up, continue working on it and try it again, eventually you will make it.
The problem is that most of us are afraid of dealing with it, we try to hide, we try to excuse ourselves and if, in the end we can’t avoid it, we do it because we have to. Just look at how often you push yourself to work on your weaknesses. More often that not, you will find yourself overestimating others and underestimating yourself. As if they are supreme beings from beyond with special abilities you will never be able to develop. Just cut the crap and start working on the qualities that will get you ahead. The road is very steep…
If there's a will, there's always a way.
This article focuses on psychological traits and attributes, including cognitive abilities, social capacities, personality, motives, and other mental characteristics of leaders....
Zaccaro, S. J., Dubrow, S., & Kolze, M. (2018). Leader traits and attributes.
this paper determines how leadership experience affects the value leaders place on leadership traits....
Nichols, A. L. (2016). What do people desire in their leaders? The effect of leadership experience on desired leadership traits. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
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