What makes a great leader?

I have read so many articles, books, stories, and emails about the qualities of great leaders. Most of the information out there is about the touchy feely metrics of great leadership. Even I have been known to talk about the necessary qualities of leaders in order to take employees to their full potential.

Every business needs a leader, someone who can stand at the helm and create the vision. Even if the business is small, someone needs to create the direction the company will go. Most experts would agree that leadership needs to start with vision, then must live and breathe the communication of that vision.

A great leader makes fast decisions, and then works hard to make sure they are the right decisions, making necessary changes along the way. A good leader will also realize when they don’t know the answer and will go out and find someone who does. I believe true leaders do not have an ego; they don’t feel the need to tell everyone how important they are and they treat everyone in their company with respect, understanding that each person in the organization offers value.

A great leader is trusted and is trusting of the people around them. A leader needs to understand the bottom line of the business, because if there is no money, there is no business. Well, that is unless they work in government! A good leader needs to know how to get employees to be productive most of the time, but knows that all of the time is unrealistic.

A good leader knows their competition, who it is and what they do, and respects not abuses this knowledge. Good leaders know that true teamwork in the workplace means a fair distribution of workload and offering a fair pay for the work done.

I have heard that good leaders manage change, but I disagree. I believe good leaders see change far off in the horizon and plan for it, knowing that business environments are always changing and it’s better to foresee this change and be proactive.

A few key traits that I have seen in great leaders are sincerity, loyalty, quiet power and understanding. There is a ton of literature on great leadership, but I am sure there is a good reason for all of it. My reason for writing this article is because I feel we do not see that many great leaders these days. There are a lot of average leaders leading the businesses of today, and those who think they are great, are often the worst ones! I bet many employees would agree with me.