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What Makes Good Leaders

Business owners, Chief Executives and senior managers are very much tied up with the day-to-day of running a business with little time for reflection. You may then not have considered what precisely made you a leader and what leadership skills you need to keep you there apart from sheer hard work and focus.

Well, here is a handy set of six signposts for gauging desirable traits in a Leader
as set out by a renowned management guru, Ram Charan:

1. Ambition - To achieve but not to win at all costs
2. Drive and Tenacity - To search and persist, but crucially not to hold on too long
3. Self Confidence - To overcome fear of failure but to avoid arrogance
4. Openness - To be receptive to new ideas and not to shut people down
5. Realism - To see what can be accomplished but not to gloss over problems
6. Appetite for Learning - To continue to grow in knowledge and not to repeat mistakes

Why don’t you take just a few minutes to honestly reflect on your own attributes of leadership? So shut the door and take the phone off the hook and clear your mind of current business issues and concentrate on your inner self. It is recommended that you write down your own attributes against each of the above six attributes in turn. Then think of at least one example how you do and, more crucially, how you don’t conform. Done it? Congratulations you have made the first important steps to improve you and your business!

Do your attributes conform to the gold standard as set out above? No? Don’t worry, natural leaders are rare and so the chances of you conforming completely to the ideal are small. So take your list and resolve on how you would wish to improve those attributes that need you need to work on. If you need help with this process, a business coach or an executive support group may be the answer.

About the author – Philip Norris is Principal Consultant and Managing Director of Norris Management Ltd. In a long and varied career, Phil has been a Programme and Project Manager for high profile projects in the Construction and Transportation fields. In recent years, he has provided much needed support as a management consultant to corporate and SME clients on people - the development of, the management of, team building and the employment of. He is also co-founding Chairman of Astute Leaders Academy for Chief Executives