5 Essential Leadership Traits

July 17, 2010, By Charles Manley 0 comments

At 20, Alexander the Great was proclaimed king by the Macedonian army and noblemen. In little more than 10 years as king, he conquered the majority of the known world and shifted the balance of world power from Asia to the Mediterranean. During his lifetime he was said to be blessed with charisma, or the favor of the gods. However, like most of the great leaders and powerful businessmen of today, he possessed a set of essential traits and qualities that helped to amplify his influence and catapult him into the history books.

Here are five essential traits for successful leaders of any age or in any environment:

1. Resourcefulness — Exploitation Through Representation

Great leaders often succeed by exploiting every resource available to them. The first resource that great leaders learn to exploit is their personnel.

In his book "Lessons from the Top: The Search for America's Best Business Leaders," Howard Schultz of Starbucks writes, "You won't be able to attract and retain great people if they don't feel like they are part of the authorship of the strategy and the authorship of the really critical issues. If you don't give people an opportunity to really be engaged, they won't stay."

Getting other people to work for you is often as simple as listening to their ideas. If people feel engaged in the process, and that they have an influence upon the outcomes, they are far more likely to perform at the height of their faculties. A hundred pairs of eyes from a hundred different angles always yield a greater comprehension and understanding of the state of affairs. And a hundred individuals engaged creatively produces more opportunities and greater allegiance. Feedback always trumps an authoritarian rule that reduces everyone to automatons.

2. Inspiration — Creating an Identity for Others

Marketing strategist Simon Sinek created a simple model to codify what makes certain leaders and corporations successful. He calls it the "golden circle." At the center of the circle is the sense of purpose: the why. If an organization starts with a purpose, not only will that corporation attract individuals eager to work toward those goals, but also it will attract consumers eager to purchase the goods or services being produced.

3. Diversification — Adaptability Trumps Process

In his book "Hedgehogs and Foxes: Character, Leadership and Command in Organizations," Abraham Zaleznik uses psychoanalysis to analyze the character traits of successful leaders. He explains the title of the book by saying, "Applied to leadership, hedgehogs reduce reality to one single principle, while foxes know many things and are prepared to adapt to a complex view of the world."

Zaleznik explains that what separates managers from leaders is adaptability. Managers implement whatever process produces a certain result. However, there is no guarantee that the same results can be achieved indefinitely. A multiplicity of unidentified factors may influence the process and produce alternate results. Leaders deviate from the obsessive aspects of management and energize their staff by drawing upon their collective imaginative thinking.

4. Vision — Harnessing the Power of the Moment

In a 2004 study conducted by the Harvard Business School's leadership initiative, the accomplishments of 860 top executives from the 20th century were analyzed in an attempt to decipher what qualities most often lead to societal influence. The study revealed that most influential leaders possessed a strong ability to understand the influence that macro-level factors had on society at any given time. The six factors that had the greatest influence were also the aspects most in flux: government regulation, labor, globalization, technology, demography and social mores. Understanding the ebb and flow of these factors rescues great leaders from the dustbin of history.

5. Attendance Will Be 10 Percent of Your Grade

Whether it is raising a child or nurturing a team, being accessible, available and visible cannot be stressed highly enough. Personal interaction is one of the greatest keys to good leadership. Even today, Alexander the Great's personal relationship with the men in his army is listed as one reason for his success. By fighting alongside his army and suffering the same injuries they did, he was able to capture their allegiance. His empire quickly dissolved in his absence.