Week #9 Leadership Characteristics

By Nick Smith
Thursday 3-19-09

1. Confidence
a. A leader is easy to follow when they are confident in what they are doing. When I see that someone lacks self-esteem/confidence, I have a hard time following them. A leader must make me feel like what I am going to help them do is worthwhile, and a strong confidence will do that.
2. Small Ego
a. Though a leader must be confident for me to want to follow them, they also must have a small ego. Leaders with a large ego make me feel like I cannot do anything to help them because I perceive them to always be in control.
3. Inspiring
a. A leader must inspire their followers to follow. They must have some sort of vision and be able to cast that vision onto others. Another approach a leader might take in place of inspiring is commanding. Since we live in America, the home of the free, we don’t really like to be commanded, but we do like to have a purpose.
4. Understanding
a. I believe a leader must be a reasonable/understanding person. What I mean here is a leader must respond to peoples mistakes with an understanding that no one is going to do everything right all the time.
5. Goal Oriented
a. A leader must have a goal, if not written out it must be in the back of their mind at all times so they are able to focus, and keep their followers focused. It would be very hard for a leader to be inspiring with no goals.
6. Make others #1
a. Humility should be core to the leader. Willing to put others before themselves. If followers start to think that the leader is only worried about themselves, they will feel used and not want to follow any more.
7. Creative
a. Finally, I think people are more likely to follow someone who is creative. This is because a creative leader is always coming up with new ways to do the same boring things. This creates an interest in the followers.