Whether you want to be a successful entrepreneur and run your own thriving empire or you want to be the president of a country, it’s important you enhance your leadership skills. It could be said that leaders are made and not born. It takes courage, hard work, persistence and dedication to lead a team successfully. A good leader is able to influence and motivate their team to work harder and reach all their goals.

Confidence

A leader needs to be confident in who they are and all the decisions they make. A leader who is self-assured will be able to make quick decisions without second guessing themselves and they’ll inspire their team.

Attitude

It’s important for a leader to have a positive attitude. If a leader has a poor attitude, people will react negatively to them. In order for a leader to be effective, they need to set up a positive environment in the workplace because positivity breeds productivity. A leader’s attitude is contagious and will rub off on others. A leader who encourages and motivates their team will fuel them to work harder and reach their goals.

Know your limitations

A great leader knows their strengths and where they fall short. They know they can’t wear all the hats in the business and can’t do everything. They make an effort to hire great team members to help them succeed and get the best results. Great leaders know they don’t have all the answers and are open to other people’s suggestions.

Accountability

Leaders know when their team members aren’t pulling up their socks there has to be consequences. A leader should penalise team members if they miss deadlines.

Walk your talk   

Good leaders set an example. They set the bar high and expect their team to follow suit. They inspire others to work harder because they put in the work too. If a leader doesn’t know how to lead by example then they make it difficult for their team to trust them. And team members are influenced by the integrity and character of their leader.

Less fear more control

When a leader walks into a room the team shouldn’t scramble to their desks with fear because they’re scared they’ll start yelling and making a scene. Using fear to control your team will just stress the team and make them unproductive. Some leaders use the fear tactic because they believe this will drive their team to deliver excellent work on time but this often backfires.. A good leader gains respect from their team by being cordial. A leader shouldn’t wear their emotions on their sleeve, they should have self control and be professional so others will respect them.

Communication

A great leader is a great communicator. Their words inspire, move and motivate their team. They create connections with their team members. When you communicate to others are they able to understand you clearly or do they look at you expressionless? If your style of communication doesn’t get a good feedback you may need to re-evaluate your approach. A leader needs to brush up on their communication skills whether it’s skills for writing reports or presenting an oral presentation.

Presentations

Great leaders need to know and understand their target audience. In the book How to win friends and influence people, the author talks about choosing topics based on other people’s interest in order to positively influence them. If you’re giving a sales pitch make sure you cater to your audience’s needs.

Listening skills

Do you give your team a chance to speak and allow them to express themselves or do you embark on one-way conversations? Listening is a helpful tool in improving your communication skills with your team members. If you’re respectful and direct, you can get your message across without offending the other party.

Commitment

Being a leader is hard work, it requires dedication, persistence and guts. Sometimes your ideas won’t be popular with the team and you’ll make mistakes but regardless you have to persevere. Of course, you won’t get everything right the first time. You have to practise being a leader in order to be an effective one.

Motivational skills

A leader should have good motivational skills, they should radiate positivity and offer encouragement to their employees. A leader can find out what each team member is good at, what their strengths and weaknesses are and then they can delegate tasks accordingly.

Teamwork

A leader should be able to instil a spirit of teamwork amongst their employees. In this way they can rest assured that the team will work together to achieve their targets and goals effectively and efficiently.

If you want to be a good leader you need to be able to coach your team and know how to take charge of any situation which presents itself. Begin working on your leaderships skills right now so that you’ll be ready to take on the role when it presents itself.