How To Be A Great Leader Blog

Leaders shape our nations, communities, and organizations.

We need good leaders to help guide us and make the essential large-scale decisions that keep the world moving.

Our society is usually quick to identify a bad leader, but how can you identify a good one? What would most people say makes a good leader?

The Characteristics & Qualities of a Good Leader

Infographic: The Characteristics of a Good Leader - 10 Key Qualities of a Good Leader

Based on our research, we've found that the best leaders consistently possess these 10 essential leadership qualities:

Integrity
Ability to delegate
Communication
Self-awareness
Gratitude
Learning agility
Influence
Empathy
Courage
Respect

Integrity

The importance of integrity should be obvious. Though it may not necessarily be a metric in employee evaluations, integrity is an essential leadership trait for the individual and the organization. It's especially important for top-level executives who are charting the organization's course and making countless other significant decisions. Our research shows that integrity may actually be a potential blind spot for organizations. Make sure your organization reinforces the importance of honesty and integrity to leaders at various levels.

Ability to Delegate

Delegating is one of the core responsibilities of a leader, but it can be tricky to delegate effectively. The goal isn't just to free yourself up — it's also to enable your direct reports to grow, facilitate teamwork, provide autonomy, and lead to better decision-making. The best leaders build trust with employees in order to delegate more effectively.

Communication

Effective leadership and effective communication are intertwined. The best leaders are skilled communicators who are able to communicate in a variety of ways, from transmitting information to inspiring others to coaching direct reports. And you must be able to listen to, and communicate with, a wide range of people across roles, geographies, social identities, and more. The quality and effectiveness of communication among leaders across your organization directly affects the success of your business strategy, too. Learn how effective communication and better conversations can actually improve your organizational culture.

Self-Awareness

While this is a more inwardly focused trait, self-awareness and humility are paramount for leadership. The better you understand yourself and recognize your own strengths and weaknesses, the more effective you can be as a leader. Do you know how other people view you or how you show up at work? Take the time to learn about the 4 aspects of self-awareness and how you can strengthen each component.

Gratitude

Being thankful can lead to higher self-esteem, reduced depression and anxiety, and better sleep. Gratitude can even make you a better leader. Yet few people regularly say "thank you" in work settings, even though most people say they'd be willing to work harder for an appreciative boss. The best leaders know how to demonstrate sincere gratitude in the workplace.

Learning Agility

Learning agility is the ability to know what to do when you don't know what to do. If you're a "quick study" or are able to excel in unfamiliar circumstances, you might already be learning agile. But anybody can foster learning agility through practice, experience, and effort. Explore how great leaders are great learners with strong learning agility to get started.

Influence

For some people, "influence" feels like a dirty word. But being able to convince people through logical, emotional, or cooperative appeals is an important trait of inspiring, effective leaders. Influence is quite different from manipulation, and it needs to be done authentically and transparently. It requires emotional intelligence and trust. Learn more about how effective influencing can be a game-changer.

Empathy

Empathy is correlated with job performance and is a critical part of emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness. If you show more inclusive leadership and empathetic behaviors towards your direct reports, our research shows you're more likely to be viewed as a better performer by your boss. Plus, empathy and inclusion are imperatives for improving workplace conditions for those around you.

Courage

It can be hard to speak up at work, whether you want to voice a new idea, provide feedback to a direct report, or flag a concern for someone above you. That's part of the reason courage is a key trait of good leaders. Rather than avoiding problems or allowing conflicts to fester, courage enables leaders to step up and move things in the right direction. A workplace with high levels of psychological safety and a strong coaching culture will further support truth and courage.

Respect

Treating people with respect on a daily basis is one of the most important things a leader can do. It will ease tensions and conflict, create trust, and improve effectiveness. Respect is about more than the absence of disrespect, and it can be shown in many different ways. Explore how you can cultivate a climate of respect at work or learn more about ways that you can become an ally to others.

Putting It All Together: The Characteristics of a Good Leader

While successful leaders may exhibit these 10 leadership qualities to varying degrees, all good leaders leverage at least some of these characteristics. Together, they make up the backbone of strong leadership across organizations, industries, and continents. Without these qualities, true leadership is impossible.

If you fear that you lack some of these characteristics of a good leader, don't panic — there are ways for you to improve on your leadership capabilities, including all 10 of these core traits. At CCL, we believe that leadership is a skill that can be developed and that leaders are molded through experience, continued study, and adaptation.

In other words, you can strengthen any of these 10 characteristics of a good leader if you're open to growth and you put in the time and effort towards self-improvement. Similarly, organizations can help their people hone these leadership qualities through development and real-world experiences.

It's also essential to realize thatleadership is a social process. It's less about a strong or charismatic individual, and more about a group of people working collectively to achieve results together. If you demonstrate several of the characteristics of a good leader but fail to grasp this, chances are you won't get very far on your own. You may be well-liked and respected, but it will be challenging to accomplish team or organizational goals.

Also,leadership isn't a destination — it's something that you'll have to work at regularly throughout your career, regardless of what level you reach in your organization.

That's why at CCL, we say that leadership is a journey— different teams, projects, situations, and organizations will require you to apply these leadership characteristics in different ways throughout your career.

Develop the Qualities of a Good Leader

Organizations can strengthen leadership qualities and foster deeper levels of engagement at work through providing a variety of development opportunities, ranging from on-the-job learning and mentoring, to more formal virtual coaching or leadership development programs.

But individuals don't have to wait to begin strengthening these characteristics of a good leader within themselves — you can start today.

First, make sure you subscribe to our newsletters to get our research-based insights, webinars, and tips on leading effectively delivered straight to your inbox.

And if you decide you want to work on developing your leadership characteristics and skills to become a more effective leader, here's how to convince your boss to make an investment in you and your future.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Develop the qualities of a good leader in yourself or at your organization with our flagship Leadership Development Program (LDP)®, the longest-running leadership development program of its kind in the world.