What personal qualities should a leader have? Development of leadership qualities

One of the main topics for research modern sciences concerning social psychology, are leadership and personality. According to scientists, the formation of leadership is directly related to the search for certain personality traits that allow one to have an advantage due to one’s psychological and physical characteristics. The leader has a major role in organizing the activities of the group to which he belongs, and also forms and regulates the interpersonal relationships of its members.

Characteristic

Who is a leader? There are many definitions from which we can conclude: a leader is a person who leads others, has authority and is able to organize and distribute the activities of a group. The definition of leadership also means that an individual has certain abilities that help him lead others. These abilities are formed from the psychological qualities of the individual, which represent a unity of knowledge, values, abilities and skills, and norms of behavior. The leader always sees big picture and knows how to achieve the goal, where to go. Even under unfavorable circumstances, he does not give up and purposefully moves forward. He is always disciplined, able to think analytically and helps others achieve the desired result.

Basic qualities

Many researchers in the field of sociology and psychology argue whether there can be leadership qualities innate or need to be developed. But there are personal and psychological qualities of a person that distinguish them from other people. These are strong and strong-willed individuals, open to criticism and closed to troubles; they have character traits such as:

• control over emotions and behavior;
• positive attitude;
• readiness for change;
• strongly believe in luck;
• expression of thoughts is short and clear;
• do not give up in the face of difficulties.

The listed character traits of a strong-willed person are not all the qualities inherent in a leader. There are many others that characterize a strong personality. These include:

Calmness, honesty, dedication, reliability

An honest and purposeful leader is believed and followed because... he is not afraid of difficulties and firmly follows his goal. Such a person is reliable and will never let his followers down, bringing the job to the end.

Openness

Good leader knows how to listen and take into account the ideas proposed by others, even if they do not correspond to his plans. The ability to consider an alternative solution to one's own is a positive skill for a leader. Openness in the relationship between him and his followers means trust and respect in the team.

Creative approach

It often happens that the usual way of thinking does not help solve a problem. Then it is necessary to expand the boundaries of consciousness and think differently, take a different approach to business. The leader is usually a creative person who does not experience difficulties in such matters. He does not despair, but suggests: “What if?” The leader's expanded thinking encourages followers to adopt a similar problem-solving approach.

Confidence and responsibility

To achieve the set goals, the leader must be assertive, as well as responsible for meeting the expectations of the wards, so he gathers all the team’s forces to solve the problem and lead to the final result. Such assertiveness is often perceived by “weaker” people as aggressiveness. But these concepts should be distinguished.

Sense of humor

This is a personal and important quality of a “strong” person, helping to relieve boredom, defuse tension in the team, and also contributes to the development of corporate spirit. Humor is a kind of power that provides control over group members.

Enthusiasm

A person who is dedicated to his work deserves the trust of his followers. Through demonstrated enthusiasm, a leader becomes an inspirer and motivator. Despite the difference in responsibilities, the leader helps others just as much as they do and is not afraid to dive into the “dirty work.”

Analytical thinking

The leader always sees the overall picture of the situation, but to study it in detail, he can “break” it into separate parts. So, without losing sight of the final goal, he sets several small ones, which accelerates progress in this direction. These are the main personal and psychological qualities of a leader. They manifest themselves both in everyday life and at work. Also, the qualities of such a person include:

• persistence and determination;
• the ability to quickly determine goals and objectives and convey them to subordinates;
• ability to motivate and inspire employees;
• the ability to remain calm in any situation;
• quick and broad thinking;
• the ability to quickly focus not on difficulties, but on achieving the goal;
• take risks, but justified ones;
• it is necessary to clearly understand what you can refuse and what you cannot;
• listen to others and discuss their ideas;
• the ability to accelerate movement towards a goal or stop dangerous processes in time.

We can conclude that leadership and a strong, strong-willed personality are inseparable concepts. A leader must have many different character traits that help him achieve success in any field. But possessing them does not mean being in charge and leading society. You need to learn how to show them correctly.

Demonstration of qualities

• proud posture shows confidence;
• a calm and firm gaze directed directly into the opponent’s eyes indicates a strong personality;
• appropriate and infrequent smile;
• respectful and inviting manners;
• the image should make a good impression.

When talking, you should believe in your own rightness and demonstrate to your interlocutor your devotion to the chosen path. The personality that characterizes a leader has self-confidence and strong will, which help in overcoming problems and difficulties. But what to do if such qualities are not observed? Is it possible to develop them? Studying this issue is still relevant today. Many researchers believe that it is possible to develop leadership qualities, you just have to work long and hard on yourself.

Formation of necessary qualities

The development of a leader’s personality must begin from childhood, but if the moment has already been missed, do not be upset, because it is never too late to engage in self-development. There are many different trainings on developing leadership qualities, the purpose of which is to create a clear plan for self-development, consisting of specific steps.

First, you need to divide your plan into several sections for the gradual development of your personality as a leader:

• short-term goals to be achieved in the near future;
• mid-term goals that need to be achieved within a few months;
• long-term goals that require a year of self-improvement.

They say that practice is more important than theory, which is fundamentally wrong. Without a theoretical foundation, you will not be able to become a leader, but will only develop the ability to copy the words and actions of other people with more outstanding abilities. To succeed in this field, you need to learn to observe and analyze their activities and behavior, creatively applying the experience gained to solve your own problems.

To develop leadership skills at the beginning of a purposeful path, leadership specialist D. Adair came up with an exercise that will help you achieve success. It consists of a list of key goals, of which you need to highlight some for yourself and follow them:

• Complete several self-improvement trainings over the course of a year.
• Conversation with established leaders to understand leadership ideas.
• Conversation with employees about why they value the leader. The answers need to be written down and thought about.
• Over the course of a year, read several self-development manuals and determine 5 practical steps based on it.
• Find out accurate information about the company’s opinion of yourself, your potential in it.
• If there is no opportunity for leadership development at work, you need to change it.
• Choose a long-term course of study to expand knowledge in a certain area.

This exercise is very effective provided that you are completely immersed in self-improvement. When creating a plan, you need to take into account the development of leadership skills in yourself. This is very labor-intensive work, but as a result, success will not be long in coming. Psychologists, having studied the biographies of the most famous personalities, have identified 10 qualities necessary for success in the field of self-development.

Movement towards results

A leader always sees his goal, knows where to move and what to do to achieve it. In order to learn this, you can read stories of successful people, books on self-development and motivation.

Decision Making

A person with a strong, strong-willed character is afraid to make difficult decisions. To develop decision-making skills, you need to learn to make decisions in areas where failure will not be a serious failure. It needs to be analyzed and not dwell on it.

Risk

A true leader valid despite the lack of guarantees of a positive result. To learn to take risks, you need to analyze a problem and draw up several options for solving it, assigning a scale for each from 1 to 5. Then you need to think about whether everything will go as planned and then take appropriate measures. Don't despair if you lose. By making mistakes and understanding their essence, leaders “grow.”

Motivating people

A leader knows how to clearly explain his thoughts and goals to others, inspires confidence and aspirations for heights that they could not even think of before. Under his leadership, the remaining members of the group try to improve their personal and professional qualities. How to motivate others: You need to study the needs of all group members that motivate them to take action. Each of them must understand the significance of their work in the team.

Creating a team

The leader's team consists of strong and productive individuals, where corporate spirit and mutual understanding reign. To create your team, you need to concentrate on the opinions of others during discussions, on their best qualities.

Self-knowledge

Good leaders strive for excellence while recognizing strengths and weaknesses. They are open to criticism and willingly change their qualities if necessary. To expand knowledge, you need to analyze your own actions and consequences. You can ask others for their opinions on what changes are needed to improve leadership skills. An excellent experience for self-knowledge would be keeping a diary with the most important events. You can use it to track your progress in improving your skills.

Personal integrity

Integrity helps you not to deviate from your principles, even if another path is easier and more profitable. A person with such a character trait is considered by everyone to be reliable and an example to follow. Active search communication with friends and colleagues will allow you to soberly assess integrity, comparing your ideas about purpose and responsibility with their opinions.

Self-improvement

To do this, you need to frequently communicate with people to exchange new ideas, analyze the actions and words of both yourself and experienced strong individuals, and read literature on the topic of leadership.

Productive communication

Good leaders can easily communicate their thoughts, goals, and ideas in a way that gets followers to follow. To learn this, you need to practice active listening, be able to see the non-verbal messages of the body, convey the most necessary information and asking her to repeat it, it is important to learn to read between the lines in a conversation.

Active mutual assistance

Encouraging even small successes of each member of the team allows them to reveal their own potential; you can entrust some with their responsibilities. With the development of these qualities, success in various areas of life will not keep you waiting, the main thing is patience and perseverance, as well as a great desire to change yourself for the better.

The phenomenon of leadership has existed for a long time, because a person has always wanted to look strong and self-sufficient in the eyes of others, to have influence and power. It is the leader who is the main character in the life scenario, endowed with exceptional prospects and access to something more. Most people associate the concept of a leader with certain innate characteristics that help achieve success, but in reality Every person is capable of developing the basic qualities of a leader.

To understand the nature of leadership, you need to study its structure and features. In modern psychology, a leader is a person who has a number of qualities and skills that help him “lead” people towards a certain goal.

The concept of leadership is quite broad and ambiguous. For its correct understanding, it is necessary to highlight specific stages of personality development successful leader:

1. He is his own leader. This is the basic first stage, which is a prerequisite for becoming a leader. You should learn to discipline and motivate yourself, take responsibility for your own actions, and develop the skills to set and achieve goals.
2. Leader in the situation. This is leadership at the micro level, when a person takes on leadership functions in a certain extreme situation, where the context of necessity forced him to take responsibility.
3. Team leader. This is the concept of macro leadership, where a person builds his team and motivates its members to achieve goals. Here situationalism disappears, replaced by constant initiative and responsibility for the quality of the work of one’s own team.
4. Leader in the system. Meta-leadership involves leadership the whole system, where a person becomes a leader among leaders. Goals become more serious and global; successful leadership at this level requires many personal and professional qualities.

So what should a leader be like? A successful leader must master basic leadership skills and master the corresponding key qualities of a leader, without which productive functioning at any stage of development will become impossible. Key leadership skills can be divided into three groups: basic skills, communication skills and personal qualities at the level of personal development.

Basic Skills for a Successful Leader

Vision of the future

It is with this concept that leadership begins, vision of prospects and developed ability forecasting allows you to be more flexible, change strategy and direction of movement, focusing on a possible situation. The ability to create a bright future in the team's mind serves as an element of inspiration and turns activities in a positive direction.

Setting goals

Goal setting serves as the foundation for successful vision and allows you to create conditions for a gradual, thoughtful movement of the team towards a big goal, achieving results gradually, in small steps. At the same time, it is final and bright, so that the team feels an urgent need to achieve it.

Successful adaptation

In our changing world, where endless streams of information pass through a person’s consciousness every day, it is necessary to be able to notice the slightest surrounding changes. Of the gigabytes of information, only that which relates to the company’s activities needs to be taken into account. Such adaptation is possible with a broad general outlook of the leader, who will be able to notice and highlight the most important trends and development strategies.

Flexibility

A leader must always have various strategies and methods in stock in order to be able to choose the most appropriate one in each specific situation. suitable option. The lack of options makes him predictable and weak in the eyes of not only the team, but also his competitors. Sometimes this quality works well on the basis of some kind of resistance to the system, which can lead to original, extraordinary solutions.

Perseverance

This quality of a leader is interconnected with the strength of personality, when a person does not stop in the face of unpleasantness and danger, and also takes justifiable risks. It is important not to confuse persistence with stubbornness, when a person is able to pursue his goal at any cost. This behavior borders on arrogance and turns the team away from the leader.

Communication skills

• Ability to persuade. This concept means effectively using your verbal intelligence, leadership emotions, to achieve the team's goals. The moment of truth comes when a person moves from his position or point of view to that of his opponent. The nature of persuasion consists of weighty arguments, because only in this way smart man can listen and accept the point of view of the interlocutor.
• Communication skills. Nowadays, this quality is of key importance for a person who wants to interact productively in society. A modern leader must be able to find a common language with different categories of people in different situations and circumstances of communication. An effective way establish communication – master techniques for quickly establishing contact. Nowadays there are many trainings where anyone can learn styles effective communication, improving your;
• Confidence. In order for the interlocutor to quickly take the desired side, non-verbal skills should be included in the communication process. These include posture, gestures, voice intonation, speech rate, and others. Their nature acts on the unconscious sphere of the human psyche and will help establish trusting contact.
• The ability not only to listen, but also to hear. This concept means that a leader can not only speak, but also listen carefully, including all channels of perception in his actions. It is important to be able to choose an appropriate topic of conversation, win over your interlocutor, and then give him the opportunity to speak. During this time, you should use an active listening strategy by nodding your head and inserting short remarks in the right places. The ability to ask logical and precise questions will help you obtain the necessary information tactfully and unobtrusively.

Personal qualities of a successful leader

• Self-confidence. A confident leader is able to inspire trust and provide a sense of security to his team. His nature makes a person stand out from the crowd even by physical signs: straight posture, straightened shoulders, calm gaze, measured breathing. Speech is smooth and clear, without hesitation or long pauses.
• Proactivity. This quality differs from ordinary activity in the ability to independently initiate a situation. Such a person knows how to get ahead of someone else’s initiative and acts based on his own motives;
• Personal integrity. The ability to “control oneself” and show emotional calm in extreme situations belongs to people with a holistic inner world. The mental processes of such a leader are balanced, he is able to control his personal feelings and behavior even in unexpected moments when most people begin to get nervous or give up.

Video: irreplaceable important qualities of a leader:

All these skills and qualities characterize a successful leader as a harmonious personality with a rich and holistic inner world, persistent life and professional installations, the ability to respect other people's personal space. Only such a leader can lead, instilling in the people he leads respect and trust in his personality and ideas.

Different cultural and historical eras, a set of political, economic, social conditions and living standards of society imply the presence of leaders with various qualities nature, sufficient to solve pressing problems in the activities of a group, class, or organization. The demand for such people in our time is especially great, and, therefore, the supply is growing. From this follows the development of a struggle for the place of leader, which can only be occupied and retained by those who possess certain leadership qualities.

2. Passion. When a person is completely absorbed in some idea or work, everything else seems to not exist around him. Passion for what you do is an important character quality, because you can truly achieve success only by doing what you love.

3. Competence. The ability not only to verbally demonstrate your knowledge in a specific area, but also to confirm it with actions, and most importantly, with results, is worth a lot.

4. Long-term vision. People willingly follow only those who have not a momentary idea, but a global vision, a long-term plan for the implementation of their plans.

In turn, the English publicist Cyril Northcote Parkinson identifies the following elements of leadership that anyone can develop:

• Imagination. A leader must have a clear idea of ​​what will happen as a result of his activities and what will happen at the end of the path he has taken.
• Knowledge. The stock of knowledge necessary to travel the road that the imagination draws.
• Talent. Every person is endowed with talent, you just need to realize what it is. Martin Roger, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, believed: “Talent without effort is like fireworks: it blinds for a moment, and then there is nothing left.”
• Determination. This is the quality that motivates a person to action, makes him work every day in order to achieve the desired result.
• Rigidity. Sometimes it is necessary to organize everything and make others work as the leader sees fit.
• Attraction. One of the main qualities of a leader’s character is the ability to be a magnet for people, attract them to oneself, and lead followers.

Leadership Development

Creating a leadership development program on your own is not an easy task, but it is quite possible. When setting such a goal, you must be as determined as possible to achieve your goals and clearly focus on practical steps. Determination and perseverance are important qualities of a leader.

The first thing you need to clearly understand is that it is impossible to become a leader in a day, a week, or a month. Based on this, you should set specific goals for yourself: from short-term (what you need to work on first) to long-term (how you see your life in a couple of years).

Exercise 2.1. The classic “Who am I?” exercise. Write down 10 answers to this question on a sheet of paper. Each answer must begin with the pronoun “I” and be specific. For example, this could be the entry “I am a student.”

After recording your answers, study them carefully. Target on at this stage- identify what prevents you from becoming a leader. If among the answers there are options like “I’m a bad friend” or “I’m a quiet person,” think about how you can correct the shortcomings and start working in this direction.

Exercise 2.2 A leader is distinguished by a clear understanding of the goals of his activities. Write down on a piece of paper entitled “My Goal” everything you would like to achieve as a result of developing yourself as a leader. These may be personal qualities that you think are missing or a desire to occupy a certain position at work. Be critical and don't think long about making up detailed plan There will still be time.

As a result, you will receive material for initial analysis and establish what you should work on first. You will understand how you can become better, develop the missing qualities in yourself and begin to work daily on developing a leader in yourself.

Exercise 2.3. Celebrate your successes. Make it a habit at the end of each day to take a few minutes to write down on a piece of paper at least 3 things that worked best for you that day. You need to do this even if you had a really bad day.

This exercise will teach you to see the positive and celebrate it, and not highlight the negative, as most people do. Positive thinking - important element character of the leader. By focusing on the successful aspects of your work, you will also gain additional motivation.

Be a proactive person. Changing your life and changing yourself is in your power. In other words, the responsibility for what happens to you is entirely in your hands. Not happy with what you have now? Take action and change it.

Stepping out of your comfort zone. Do something you've never done before but have dreamed of. Learn to dance or draw, take up rock climbing - do something you never dared to do before. Don't wait suitable occasion or someone who agrees to accompany you. This will teach you to look at things more broadly, embody your ideas and be independent in your choices.

Constant personal growth. Improve yourself all the time. Be interested in the latest developments and innovations in your field of work and in related areas, deepen your competence. Develop creativity and creativity. This will teach you lively thinking and non-standard actions.

Become a leader in life. It is not enough to be a leader only in the office. Be active in non-work relationships with other people, family, friends with whom you play football or tennis. Challenge yourself to be a leader in all areas of your life.

Self-confidence. It is the faith in own strength, rather than arrogance and arrogance is a distinctive character trait of a leader.

Ability to communicate with people. Skills successful communication are of great importance to the leader. We will talk about them in one of the following lessons.

By keeping all of the above in mind and constantly cultivating the character traits of a leader, you will be able to develop them and achieve positive results.

Charisma must be among the main qualities of a leader. This word denotes the special emotional and mental qualities of a person, thanks to which he can influence the opinions of other people, forcing them to move in the right direction. Charismatic leaders easily convince people that they are right and have a serious influence on the crowd.

Any leader must have a wide variety of knowledge. He must be erudite, intelligent and quick-witted. A person who can answer a complex question simply and competently attracts other people, earns their trust and respect. Showing your erudition is very important, but it is more important not to demonstrate such disdainful superiority. Such manifestations neutralize the entire positive effect.

Human factor!

Self-confidence is one of the components of the personality of a true leader. A person who does not waste time convincing himself that he is right, who knows how and what he is achieving, a person who can inspire his confidence in other people is an ideal leader who can attract a huge number of supporters to his side.

The ability to evaluate, recognize and accept the merits of others is very important for a person who is in a leadership position. It is necessary to understand people’s motivations, analyze their abilities - this allows you to properly manage them, “reveal” them, choosing the right type of work. Without the ability to highlight and reward the merits of subordinates, it is impossible to become a good leader.

Almost all of the above qualities can be cultivated in yourself if you set such a goal. Working on yourself and setting goals correctly will allow anyone to become an exemplary leader.

What sets a good leader apart are his qualities. Whether you're trying to start your own business, managing a team of employees, or just holding meetings and dialogue, you can be a leader. A true leader always has answers to the most difficult questions. A true leader can inspire and motivate people to get the job done. At the same time, it is very difficult for a leader. The leader has no one to turn to for advice, because... everyone talks to him for advice.

There are no magic courses in nature that can turn any rag into a successful leader. People often argue that great leaders are born that way. In part, I agree with this. Certain types of people simply do not have certain qualities that a leader should have. It will be extremely difficult for a certain type of person to become an ideal leader, because... you cannot step over your essence. But if you learn the basics of leadership, you can develop a leadership position.

So, let's begin to study the most necessary leadership qualities.

A leader has a strong belief in his own beliefs, which inspires those around him.

If a person strongly believes in his beliefs, then more often than not, such a person will stick to his values ​​in all situations, which affects the overall vision of the leader and the future of the company. But this should not mean that the leader ignores the opinions of all people who think differently. A good leader is a flexible leader. A good leader will listen to the opinions of others, adapt his ideas and develop them, taking into account the suggestions of his team. Adapting your own ideas is not a change in your own beliefs.

Research shows a high degree of correlation between feelings of uncertainty and stress. A lingering feeling of uncertainty often provokes, which is very detrimental to any organization. If your employees are unsure of what decision you have made about a new idea, or they feel that the leader changes his decisions too often, then they will not be able to focus on their work and their productivity will be minimal. Such a leader is most often no longer respected, and his instructions are not taken seriously.

There is a famous story about the former head of Apple. Steve Jobs demonstrated a very strong position in his beliefs. For example, when the first iPhone was released, many said that people prefer a traditional keyboard, and no one would want to use a touch one. Jobs always responded to such arguments that people would get used to it. That's how confident he was in the correctness of his decisions.

A leader uses emotional intelligence to improve relationships with clients and colleagues.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand your own emotions and the emotions of others. If a person knows how to do this, then he gains maximum control over his own emotions and understands the emotional state of others. This greatly helps in managing business negotiations, helps to make good sales because Any person is very dependent on the emotional background and does many actions based on emotions.

One study of a foreign insurance company, Fortune, found that people with high emotional intelligence were more successful. They more often received high grades and more positive results in their work. This is justified by the benefits of emotional intelligence. Such people often have good control over their emotions and behavior, work better in teams with other people, and can quickly resolve conflicts before they get out of control.

Where to start developing emotional intelligence

Some people have a natural ability for this, while others have to spend several years to master it at a basic level.

If you're just starting to develop emotional intelligence, spend more time learning about other people's feelings. If you notice positive or negative emotions, then try to analyze it. Why did the person feel these emotions and what led to this?

A leader masters the art of communication

If you are a leader, then you often have to communicate with other people. None of the problems can be solved without your participation in it. You will regularly hold face-to-face meetings, make calls to clients, and correspond with clients on a regular basis. It's worth noting that not all conversations will be pleasant. For example, accept the client’s negativity or inform a colleague about his dismissal.

You can ask any successful leader what skills are most valuable for success, and they will probably name communication skills, among others. For example, billionaire and serial entrepreneur Richard Branson called communication the most important skill a leader has.

Communication makes all processes smoother. Developed communication skills help you communicate more effectively to employees various instructions and task execution details. Communication also allows you to convey your mood and degree of importance through the tone of the conversation. Accordingly, communication is an objective and subjective means of influencing your listeners.