4 Essential Leadership Traits

How many do you have?

 

I’m not claiming there are only 4 essential leadership traits, only that these 4 have been possessed by every great leader I’ve personally known:

  1. Empathy: the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, and the inclination to do so even if the feelings are negative.
  2. Humility: the ability to not over-estimate your own importance and to understand the luck always involved in success, even yours.
  3. Authenticity: the willingness to be genuine, to openly be the person you truly are in all situations.
  4. Vulnerability: the courage to risk emotional attack or ridicule by expressing and revealing your true self, including weaknesses.

You may add some, but I doubt there’s been an effective leader in your life that didn’t share these traits.

So if you want to lead, start developing these characteristics. Put your real self out there. Care more about others than yourself.

We need leaders now more than ever.