“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” – Jim Rohn

For a long time, people have been admiring leaders around the world. Leaders avidly exhibit the ways to achieve goals which seem difficult. There are people who have inborn leadership qualities. Though such people are great at leading others, it is not necessary that they become good leaders. There are a few traits that make a leader desirable and lovable. A person needs to work on a few traits to acquire good leadership qualities.

An abstract definition of leadership could be, ‘the action of leading a group of people or an organization’. The definition provided seems like an easy job but the truth is, it requires more than just ‘action of leading’. It involves the art of perfection in leading others and directing people. It involves making strategies to lead people towards the desired goal. It is a tough process to inspire people as it requires original ideas to motivate others.

The main key to become a leader is communication. Communication is important in everyone’s life, but as a leader, it is a vital quality. In business, leadership is always linked to a person’s performance. With his/her performance, one should also be excellent at management. The leader should know how to manage the resources and deliver the resources accordingly. They should be good at communicating, inspiring and supervising others. One of the main traits of a leader is of mapping the plan to reach the goal that has been set.

A leader possesses few qualities that make him stand out of the crowd, like the ones listed below

• Strategic Thinking

Thinking is an integral part of us humans. A leader should think differently. His thinking should involve ideas. There should be a vision for everything he thinks. He should know where to set the goal and how to work towards reaching the goal. The leader sees the bigger picture and plans the path accordingly. With a compelling vision, a leader plans a route that is achievable.

• Planning and Delivery

The most important thing to keep in mind is self-motivation. One should be self-motivated to lead a crowd. A leader is an organizer, he possesses organization skills and taking the action for planning the road map. He should be skilled in managing the challenges while working on a project.

• People Management

Managing people involves smart skills in working with others in a group as well as one to one. It is important that the followers are motivated and encouraged by the leader every now and then. Delegation is necessary when it comes to people management. Leaders have to smartly balance workloads and ensure everyone is given equal opportunity to showcase their talent and their skills. The leader has to effectively recruit people as well.

• Change Management

As it is said, ‘Change is inevitable’, it is a must that a leader is ready to adapt to new possibilities. He should efficiently manage to proceed further with his team with an accepting nature. Communication with the team should be lead to a compelling vision. He should manage to encourage his team to look at the change as an innovation.

• Communication

The most important trait of a leader is how good he can communicate with others. Communication is a normal thing in every person’s life. A person becomes successful when he listens to others. Not only listens but actively listens and participates in the conversation by regularly giving feedback. He should be able to ask questions that are meaningful. He should possess a high level of assertiveness and deliver effective speaking.

Ways to Develop Leadership Skills:

Leadership qualities might be inborn in a few people, but it is totally possible to inculcate leadership skills by focusing on a few applications. Leadership skills can be acquired with little changes in day to day routine. Here are 5 leadership skills to be a successful leader:

1. Practice Discipline: Being discipline is life is a trait to lead a great life. Leaders need to be disciplined in order to lead others on the correct path and in time. It is easy to start a task but it is difficult to continue it with the same enthusiasm. Practicing how to be discipline will make a huge achievement towards the desired goal of leadership.
2. Keep Learning: Learning is a never ending process, whether the person is 10 or 80, he cannot know enough. There is no limit for expanding one’s knowledge, grab it from all the resources whenever possible. Really life experiences teach a person how to proceed. Through experience, one can learn many aspects of leadership. It is not necessary that a person learns everything in a classroom actually, he really learns from interacting with people and learning from them.
3. Listen: Listening is an amazing trait of a person. He who listens gains more insights into a topic. It develops a sense of trust in the person who is speaking. It makes the leader look more humble and approachable. When the team members know that they are being heard, they naturally will open up and share their ideas without hesitation.
4. Resolve Conflicts: In the workplace, there generally conflicts occur. The problems are mere in front of the goal. The leader should learn to resolve conflicts and yet try not to be discriminative towards any person. The leader should make people understand what is good and what is not.
5. Motivate Others: A leader should constantly keep motivating the team members. He should brainstorm to generate new ideas in the minds of his teammates. Listening to their ideas and implementing it will keep the teammates engaged in developing interaction with each other and the leader as well.

A leader possesses a few characteristics which make the leader more appealing to the team. Few characteristics that a leader should have are:

• Honesty
• Delegation
• Good Communicator
• Confidence
• Commitment
• Creative and Innovative Thinking
• Decision-Making Capabilities
• Positive Attitude

It isn’t necessary that leadership comes instantly, a person may face many ups and downs while shaping his leadership skills. There will be times that a person might feel like giving up, but it is really important at this time to motivate oneself and make efforts to reach the destination.