I found an article about the top 5 leadership traits and thought I’d share it with you.

1. Honest

The first of the top 5 leadership traits is being HONEST. By demonstrating honesty with yourself, with your organization and with outside organizations, you will increase your leadership influence. People will trust someone who actively displays honesty–not just as an honest individual, but as someone who is worth following.

2. Forward-Looking

The second of the top 5 leadership traits is being FORWARD-LOOKING.  The whole point of leadership is figuring out where to go from where you are now. While you may know where you want to go, people won’t see that unless you actively communicate it with them.

3. Competent

The third of the top 5 leadership traits is being COMPETENT. People want to follow someone who is competent. This doesn’t mean a leader needs to be the foremost expert on every area of the entire organization, but they need to be able to demonstrate competency.

4. Inspiring

The fourth of the top 5 leadership traits is to be INSPIRING.  If you have developed the other traits in this article, being inspiring is usually just a matter of communicating clearly and with passion. Being inspiring means telling people how your organization is going to change the world.

5. Intelligent

The last of the top 5 leadership traits is to be INTELLIGENT.  To develop intelligence you need to commit to continual learning–both formally and informally. The fact is that most people won’t make a regular investment in their education. Spending 30 minutes of focused reading every day will give you 182 hours of study time each year.

These are the top 5 leadership traits that people look for in their leaders.

By consciously making an effort to exhibit these traits, people will be more likely to follow you.  By exhibiting them on a regular basis, you will be able to grow your influence to its potential as a leader. Acquiring these traits aren’t going to happen overnight! So never give up, there is always room for improvement when it comes to personal development.

You can read the full article here.

Book suggestion: Developing the Leader Within You – John C. Maxwell

“The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” ~ Henry Kissinger

In addition to these top 5 leadership traits, what other traits have helped you in becoming a better leader?

Be Sociable, Share!

•