Leadership comes in many forms. The public’s perception of a leader can also vary from person to person. Question is, what does leadership mean to you?
Being a good leader doesn’t necessarily mean you need to have followers. In fact, the best leadership can be displayed simply by you being yourself in any given situation. You don’t need to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or the president of a student organization to be deemed a good leader. What may give you the moniker of “leader” might just be how you treat others.
We’ve broken down the various traits of a leader and identified a number of questions you should ask yourself as it relates to your interest in leadership and if/how you’re currently serving as a good leader.
Vision
Do you paint a picture of your entire organization? Is your vision & goals clear? Have you modeled the way for others to follow?
Have you created a common purpose for your members? Have you found the way to appeal to shared aspirations?
Do your members engage in outcome thinking?
Are your actions aligning with your values?
Are you building a high-performance culture?
Trust
Do you share yourself and the numbers in your organization?
Are you developing deep listening skills?
Are you predictable and consistent?
Do you have an open-door policy?
Participation
How well do you unleash people’s potential?
Are you building partnerships?
Are you nurturing a team environment?
Do your members feel like owners?
Is there a winning attitude?
Are you managing less and mentoring & inspiring more allowing others to carryout your vision?
Learning
Are you nurturing your own personal development?
Do you know your strengths and shortcomings?
Are you being mentored and are you mentoring others?
Is your organization learning-centered?
Diversity
Have you confronted your own biases and prejudices?
How well do you manage individual differences?
Are you creating a culture of respect?
Creativity
Are you discovering your member’s strengths and managing around their weaknesses?
Do you know where the pockets of creativity lie within your organization?
Are you developing people-centered technologies, making it easier for everyone to do their job?
Do you reward chairs and officers who are good leaders?
Integrity
Do you promote organizational fairness by holding everyone equally accountable?
Do you foster ethics and entrepreneurship, allowing for new ideas but keeping ethics in mind?
Do you show courage to make tough decisions and promote courage in others?
Do you put your integrity into action?
Community
Have you created a healthy community; one with a good balance of school, work, family, fitness and fun?
Are you inspiring pride and performance in others?
Do you care beyond your own self-interests?
Are you committed to transforming your organization to excellence?
Are you celebrating organization and members success?
You might consider reviewing these questions regularly to continually assess your leadership traits. Treat it as a checklist and compare from review to review.