Attributes of a Great Leader
A good leader is defined by many things. You could be considered a great leader if you have integrity, courage, self-awareness, empathy, respect, and gratitude. You should be learning agile and flex your influence while communicating and delegating tasks effectively. While these tend to be the key leadership qualities, learning and improving on each is critical. To become a truly effective leader of a team, you will need to possess certain values. In this article, I will share my personal values of leadership, abbreviated as CRAVE:
• Communication based on TRUST!
• Respect: Valuing the diversity of the team
• Authenticity: Being who you are
• Vulnerability: Being able to express your thoughts, ideas, and concerns without fear of shame.
• Assertiveness with Empathy: Disagreeing without making it personal
If you have worked with a bad leader before, you probably know the importance of a good leader. Not only will a good leader provide direction in an organization, but can also make the difference between enjoying the job and tolerating it. A great leader will bring many benefits to the team and the entire organization. They ensure the team is achieving its goals, profits are increasing, customers are satisfied, and employees are retained. To become a good leader, work to attain and grow the CRAVE leadership attributed:
1. Communication
Communication based on trust is perhaps the most important attribute of a great leader. Not only does it allow the leader to define the goals of the team members clearly, but also understand their desires. Good communication skills are important because you need to inspire and empower people around you. Without effective communication skills, you will not be heard or understood as a leader by others.
Although it is common knowledge that communication is key in a work environment, bad communication is one of the biggest weaknesses of many leaders. Improving your communication skills makes you more approachable and easier to work with. This is also the reason why leaders whose actions and words are centered on effective interactions tend to have more influence on their teams. Similarly, leaders who communicate constantly and consistently are seen as being more reliable and trustworthy.
Some of the best leaders in the world are skilled communicators who can communicate in several ways. They can transmit information to inspire, motivate, or coach others. However, effective communication also requires you to become a good listener and understand the needs of others. This will ensure you build trust with your team members, and create bonds that surpass boundaries such as roles, social identities, and roles. Other important elements of communication include the ability to ask open-ended questions, be transparent, receive and implement feedback, and use body language.
2. Respect
Great leaders respect and value the diversity of their teams. In fact, treating people with respect every day is one of the most important things you can do as a leader. When team members know and understand they are respected by the leader, they tend to be more comfortable in themselves. They are free to express themselves and perform to their optimal levels. In addition, a workplace with mutual respect lets allows employees to know that they are valued for their qualities, abilities, and achievements.
Respecting team members helps in easing tensions and conflict, creating trust, and improving effectiveness. They feel more valued and can interact freely with the leader and others in the organization. However, creating a culture of respect is not just about the absence of disrespect. It is about valuing everyone on the team and supporting them irrespective of their background. Respectfulness can be shown in several ways, but it usually starts with simply being a good listener. You will want to truly seek to understand the needs and perspectives of your team members.
Being respectful is also a great way to become a role model for followers. In a team or organizational setting, followers constantly observe their leaders. If a leader is disrespectful and a non-performer, team members will also follow suit. This is because team members watch to see how the leader responds to everything, including events and messages. They then model their own responses based on what they have observed the leader do. If you set an example of a respectful individual, you will have a team of respectful employees who are easier to work with and guide.
3. Authenticity
Authenticity means acting in a way that represents who you truly are instead of trying to act like someone else. In other words, you show your true self to your team members, allowing them to associate with you freely. Being authentic allows you to create an organizational climate of knowledge-sharing, commitment, higher performance, greater work engagement, job satisfaction, and productivity. Your team members will feel inspired and passionate about their work, knowing that they understand who you are as a leader and as a person.
Authenticity in leadership is a healthy alignment between internal beliefs and values and external behavior. It comes from finding your way and style of leading and making life decisions that reflect your values, ethics, and personality. If one of your traits is patience, every time you demonstrate patience to your team members, they see your authentic self. The more team members see you as a patient leader, the more they will come to expect that you will always respond with patience no matter what they bring to you.
Another important factor in authenticity is self-awareness. For you to be authentic, you need to be aware of your own strengths and weaknesses. You can do this by soliciting feedback from peers or employees, and acting on it to become a better version. Self-awareness will help you actively reflect on how other people perceive your words and actions. You can then work to change your approaches to lead your followers more effectively.
4. Vulnerability
When you think of a great leader, a strong figure is what typically comes to mind. In any case, weakness is not among the traits people assign to leaders. On the contrary, leaders are expected to be professional, stoic, and visibly unperturbed in any situation. However, leaders are humans too, and have their own highs and lows. While you may always be expected to be tough and provide direction to your team, sometimes to will have to be weak and vulnerable.
Great leaders are not shy to show their vulnerability. They are able to express their thoughts, ideas, and concerns without fear of shame. When you think of vulnerability as a leadership trait, qualities such as openness, courage, and openness come into play. You are open to sharing your emotions and feeling with your team, telling the truth as you see it, and taking risks that may feel risky or uncomfortable at first glance. In return, you build trust with your team and encourage them to open up more to you and share their ideas. As a result, your followers start seeing themselves in a new light as creators rather than just followers.
5. Assertiveness
Great leaders are assertive, but with empathy. While views and opinions can differ, a good leader knows how to disagree without making it personal. By having more empathetic behaviors and inclusive leadership toward your direct reports, you are more likely to be viewed as a better leader. Such an assertive approach to leadership helps in creating a productive work environment, resolving conflicts quickly, and increasing job satisfaction. Assertiveness also enables you to work more efficiently with people and build greater professional success.
Empathy in assertiveness is a core attribute that helps leaders nurture their teams. Being assertive alone means that you express your expectation, ideas, and thoughts in a self-assured and considerate way. With empathy, however, you can understand the needs of your team members and what goes into their minds. It is also important to understand that we live in a world of a constant communication loop. People interact with each other all the time and with a lot of ease, but they tend to be less empathetic. This often makes it difficult to understand the perspectives of others.
An empathetic and assertive leader is perceptive. They are sensitive to insight and their surroundings. While you want to provide direction for your team, you are always aware that feelings and thinking differ from one person to another. Rather than being loud or rude, you are direct and honest in expressing your feelings and needs. You are more interested in equalizing the balance of power instead of winning the fight by humiliating the other person. This way, you can create honest relationships with others while enabling them to respond to their wants, needs, feelings, and ideas.
Bottom Line
A good leader sets the expectations of the team, but a great leader works with the team to meet those expectations. While anyone can call themselves a leader, only great ones make an impact on a team or organization. Such leaders have defined a set of attributes that allow them to thrive as the pillars of their teams. The CRAVE attributes define the essential skills that a leader needs to become great, including communication, respect, authenticity, vulnerability, and empathy.
Author(s): Dr. Amin Sanaia
Board Insights | Open Source | ORCID iD
Published Online: 2023 Jun – All Rights Reserved.
APA Citation: Sanaia, A. (2023, Jun 25). Attributes of a Great Leader: C.R.A.V.E.. The Journal of Leaderology and Applied Leadership. https://jala.nlainfo.org/attributes-of-a-great-leader-c-r-a-v-e/