According to John C. Maxwell, the 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader are the following :
1 CHARACTER: Be a Piece of the Rock
2 CHARISMA: The First Impression Can Seal the Deal
3 COMMITMENT: It Separates Doers from Dreamers
4 COMMUNICATION: Without It You Travel Alone
5 COMPETENCE: If You Build It, They Will Come
6 COURAGE: One Person with Courage Is a Majority
7 DISCERNMENT: Put an End to Unsolved Mysteries
8 FOCUS: The Sharper It Is, the Sharper You Are
9 GENEROSITY: Your Candle Loses Nothing When It Lights Another
10 INITIATIVE: You Won’t Leave Home Without It
11 LISTENING: To Connect with Their Hearts, Use Your Ears
12 PASSION: Take This Life and Love It
13 POSITIVE ATTITUDE: If You Believe You Can, You Can
14 PROBLEM SOLVING: You Can’t Let Your Problems Be a Problem
15 RELATIONSHIPS: If You Get Along, They’ll Go Along
16 RESPONSIBILITY: If You Won’t Carry the Ball, You Can’t Lead the Team
17 SECURITY: Competence Never Compensates for Insecurity
18 SELF-DISCIPLINE: The First Person You Lead Is You
19 SERVANTHOOD: To Get Ahead, Put Others First
20 TEACHABILITY: To Keep Leading, Keep Learning
21 VISION: You Can Seize Only What You Can See
Leadership is an inside job.
Leaders are effective because of who they are on the inside—in the qualities that make them up as people. And to go to the highest level of leadership, people have to develop these traits from the inside out.
Everything rises and falls on leadership. And leadership truly develops from the inside out. If you can become the leader you ought to be on the inside, you will be able to become the leader you want to be on the outside. People will want to follow you. And when that happens, you’ll be able to tackle anything in this world.
1 CHARACTER: Be a Piece of the Rock
Leadership is the capacity and will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence.—Bernard Montgomery, British Field Marshal
How a leader deals with the circumstances of life tells you many things about his character. Crisis doesn’t necessarily make character, but it certainly does reveal it. Adversity is a crossroads that makes a person choose one of two paths: character or compromise. Every time he chooses character, he becomes stronger, even if that choice brings negative consequences.
Improving your character
• Search for the cracks. Spend some time looking at the major areas of your life (work, marriage, family, service, etc.), and identify anywhere you might have cut corners, compromised, or let people down. Write down every instance you can recall from the past two months.
• Look for patterns. Examine the responses that you just wrote down. Is there a particular area where you have a weakness, or do you have a type of problem that keeps surfacing? Detectable patterns will help you diagnose character issues.
• Face the music. The beginning of character repair comes when you face your flaws, apologize, and deal with the consequences of your actions. Create a list of people to whom you need to apologize for your actions, then follow through with sincere apologies.
•Rebuild. It’s one thing to face up to your past actions. It’s another to build a new future. Now that you’ve identified any areas of weakness, create a plan that will prevent you from making the same mistakes again.
CHARISMA: The First Impression Can Seal the Deal
How can you have charisma? Be more concerned about making others feel good about themselves than you are making them feel good about you. —Dan Reiland
Roadblocks to Charisma
Pride. Nobody wants to follow a leader who thinks he is better than everyone else.
Insecurity. If you are uncomfortable with who you are, others will be too.
Moodiness. If people never know what to expect from you, they stop expecting anything.
Perfectionism. People respect the desire for excellence, but dread totally unrealistic expectations.
Cynicism. People don’t want to be rained on by someone who sees a cloud around every silver lining.
3 COMMITMENT: It Separates Doers from Dreamers
People do not follow uncommitted leaders. Commitment can be displayed in a full range of matters to include the work hours you choose to maintain, how you work to improve your abilities, or what you do for your fellow workers at personal sacrifice. —Stephen Gregg, Chairman and CEO of Ethix Corp.
What is commitment? To each person, it means something different:
To the boxer, it’s getting off the mat one time more than you’ve been knocked down.
To the marathoner, it’s running another ten miles when your strength is gone.
To the soldier, it’s going over the hill, not knowing what’s waiting on the other side.
To the missionary, it’s saying good-bye to your own comfort to make life better for others.
To the leader, it’s all that and more because everyone you lead is depending on you.
If you want to be an effective leader, you have to be committed. True commitment inspires and attracts people. It shows them that you have conviction. They will believe in you only if you believe in your cause. As the Law of Buy-In states, people buy into the leader, then the vision.
When it comes to commitment, there are really only four types of people:
1. Cop-outs. People who have no goals and do not commit.
2. Holdouts. People who don’t know if they can reach their goals, so they’re afraid to commit.
3. Dropouts. People who start toward a goal but quit when the going gets tough.
4. All-outs. People who set goals, commit to them, and pay the price to reach them.
4 COMMUNICATION: Without It You Travel Alone
Educators take something simple and make it complicated. Communicators take something complicated and make it simple. —John C. Maxwell
Improving your communication
To improve your communication, do the following:
•Be clear as a bell. Examine a letter, memo, or other item you’ve recently written.
“To a communicator, your best friends are simplicity and clarity. Write your next piece of communication keeping both in mind.
• Refocus your attention. During the coming week, pay attention to your focus when you communicate. Is it on you, your material, or your audience? If it’s not on people, you need to change it. Think about their needs, questions, and desires. Meet people where they are, and you will be a better communicator.