7 Leadership Qualities & Characteristics of Good Leaders | Brian Tracy

“Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.”

Great leaders have a clear, exciting idea of where they are going. They are excellent at strategic planning.

While a manager gets the job done, great leaders tap into the emotions of their employees.

“Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it, all others depend.”  

Having the quality of courage means that you are willing to take risks in the achievement of your goals with no assurance of success.

“With integrity, you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide. With integrity, you will do the right thing, so you will have no guilt.” 

Truthfulness is the foundation quality of the trust that is necessary for the success of any business. It requires that you always tell the truth, to all people, in every situation.

“The more you can contain your ego, the more realistic you are about your problems. You learn how to listen, and admit that you don’t know all the answers. You exhibit the attitude that you can learn from anyone at any time. Your pride doesn’t get in the way of gathering the information you need to achieve the best results. It doesn’t keep you from sharing the credit that needs to be shared. Humility allows you to acknowledge your mistakes".

Humility means that you have the self-confidence and self-awareness to recognize the value of others without feeling threatened. You are willing to admit you could be wrong and may not have all the answers.

Humility requires the containment of one’s ego.

“Strategy is not the consequence of planning, but the opposite: it’s the starting point.”

Great leaders have the ability to look ahead, to anticipate with some accuracy where the industry and the markets are going in advance of their competitors. 

“Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them. They stay focused on their past successes rather than their past failures, and on the next action steps they need to take to get them closer to the fulfillment of their goals rather than all the other distractions that life presents to them."

Leaders focus on results, on what must be achieved by themselves, by others, and by the company. They focus on the strengths in themselves and others.

“If your imagination leads you to understand how quickly people grant your requests when those requests appeal to their self-interest, you can have practically anything you go after.”

Your ability to select the 20 percent of your people to contribute to 80 percent of your results is essential to the smooth functioning of the organization. Commit to get along well with each key person every single day.

Leaders strive to perfect the ability to speak effectively and persuasively.

They tend to practice public speaking within their own businesses until they are ready to branch out into professional paid speaking gigs.

Leaders think about good leadership qualities and how to apply them on a daily basis.

They lead by example to truly earn the trust of their followers.