What qualities do you need to lead a community? This is the question that many people ask when they are in charge of leading or managing a team. There are many opinions on what qualities make up an effective leader, but leaders need to have these five qualities:
Give people credit
Giving credit is an important quality of a good leader because if you give people too much praise for their work, they may not continue to strive to do the best that they can do. It’s not about saying someone did a good job and giving them all of the credit; it’s about sharing the success with everyone who helped make it happen.
Be trustworthy
Trust is the most powerful thing in leadership development. The more people have faith in your decisions, actions, or leadership skills, the more influence you will have on those people. Only by being trustworthy can you build a team that will work hard for you and wants to achieve success with you. Trust is something that must be earned, not given away.
Be open-minded
Closing your mind off from other perspectives is a disservice to your team and the work it produces. It shows that you’re only willing to accept one way of doing things, which means there’s a limit on what someone can contribute to the group effort if their ideas don’t align with your opinions or thoughts about how something should be done.
Have empathy
Empathy can be difficult for some people to understand and practice, but it is important in leading. One of the most important things someone in a position of leadership should do when interacting with others is listen to them and try to understand their perspective. If you fail to represent the thoughts and feelings of those you are leading, they will lose faith in your abilities as a leader pretty quickly. Listening is one of the best ways to build trust, which leads us right into our next quality.
Have humility
Leading by example goes beyond what you say or how well you do your job; it’s also about who you are outside of work. Your true character counts more than anything else when trying to lead a team. Remember that your actions and words will always speak louder than you think they do, so always be mindful of what others see when they are around you.