Are you a leader?

Truth be told, not everyone is a leader. It’s just not meant for everyone. And that’s ok.

But more people are leaders than they realize. Leadership takes on many different faces; it’s just a question of understanding, how you lead and why? Here are 10 key leadership skills you will need to succeed as a leader:

1.      Lead by Example:  You can’t be an aloof leader, someone that’s never around and incapable of getting your hands dirty. One of the best ways to lead is by example- pitching in where needed, lending is helping hand and making sure that the work you do is clearly understood by your team.

2.      Passion: A leader without passion isn’t a leader. He’s a paper pusher. Or a task master. Or a government employee…. Passion drives a lot, and you can inspire so much in others through your own passion and enthusiasm. That doesn’t mean you have to be constantly cheery, it means you’ve got to believe in what you are doing and what your company is doing?

3.      Be organized: A disorganized leader isn’t leading; he’s chasing his own tail. Disorganization breeds nothing but more disorganization. If you are frazzled and messy, your team will be too. When you’re organized you’ll be much more productive and so will everyone else.

4.      Delegate: You can’t do everything. A great leader needs to be able to delegate successfully is giving employees ownership of the work you assign them. They can’t just feel like they own the work, they really have to.

5.      Take ownership and responsibility: Although you’ve just delegated work and truly given your team ownership, you also have to take ownership and responsibility at all times. Your team has to know you’ll be there for them through the good and the bad times. That doesn’t mean you absolve people from making mistakes or ignore crappy work/effort, but it does mean you take responsibility for the big picture.

6.      Communicate effectively: Duh. Everyone knows great leaders have to be great communicators. But there are certain points of communication that many people forget. For example it’s critical that you communicate to employees how their work truly makes difference? Communicating success is also something leaders forget to do. People affirmation. They want to know they did a good job. You just have to tell them. And be precise. Insecure leaders will often ramble; uninterested leaders cut things often quickly. Whether you’re giving prays, providing constructive criticism, or defining goals and to-dos, you have to figure out how much to say and what order. Be precise, specific and concise. Get to the point.

7.      Be brave and honest:  Cowardly, leaders will shy any number of situation that crops up regularly when running the team. The project your team has worked for the sixth month just got shelved. Now, what? Or you have to talk to someone about their lack of effort recently. Do you ignore the problems? Or may be its time to take your product into a new market. Do you hobble forward, scare and nervous, or do you grab the market by the throat? Leaders are brave honest. Tell it like it is. Don’t sugarcoat, don’t obfuscate. Don’t be a jerk either. You have to learn how to present the things to your team in an honest but in balance manner.

8.       Great listener:  A huge of being a great communicator is being a great listener. If you all want to do is talk, you aren’t a leader. Keeping people motivate means listening to them asking them a question and understanding their issues. When you listen more, you can respond more effectively and go to the heart of things much faster.

9.      Know your people: You have to know your people. You don’t have to be best friends or even socialize outside of work, but you do have to know what makes them tick? You need to know about their personal lives because their lives outside work matter. Their lives outside work drive a great deal of their success (or lack of) at work. Keep trace of the simple thing: birthday, marriage, children, etc. The more you know your people the more common ground you are likely to find, the more you’ll be able to connect.

10.  Be a follower: Benjamin Disraeli said, “I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?” That sum up many of other points so beautifully. Great leaders are the follower too. If you are a leader without following, you are a dictator. And as fun as that sound… being a leader-follower is finding value in your team, getting inspired by your team, encouraging your team to communicate Brainstormed and be open.

Be a great leader!!!!