4 Ways To Become a Better Leader

There are four distinct character traits that almost all leaders share. Of course there are more but these ones stick out as extremely important. If you improve yourself in any of these four areas you’ll be on your way to becoming a better leader in no time.

Be Confident Always

Confidence, not only in yourself and your ability, but in your team and their ability, can go further than any other character trait in existence.

Having confidence as a leader allows your team to be confident in you. No one likes feeling uncertain and no one likes to feel like the task at hand is too hard or too great to accomplish or complete.

You can be great at the other three character traits but if you lack confidence you’ll have a hard time getting not only others to follow you, but you probably won’t even follow yourself. Without confidence you’ll be sitting in an indefinite state of inaction.

Be confident in what you’re doing even if you’re not the best at it or lack the skills and knowledge to do it. Believe that you can succeed in what you are doing no matter what and don’t let anyone sway your attitude. You’ll be surprised at how much more likely people are willing to follow you.

And for the guys out there, the #1 characteristic that women search for in their mate is confidence.

Be Knowledgeable and Resourceful

Having knowledge definitely gives you an advantage as a leader but having knowledge alone is not enough to lead. There are a bunch of smart people out there who don’t belong leading anyone at all but they still serve a purpose by aiding their leaders.

A leader doesn’t need to be able to do everything and know it all; a leader needs to be resourceful and to recognize their weaknesses and limits. This allows them to find others to make up where they lack and to utilize people to their best of their abilities.

Don’t know something?

No problem, a leader will find someone that does.

Having said that, knowledge will also give you confidence which is vital. So if you want to improve at being a leader then start reading up on or learning about what you’re leading.

You can’t be the #1 real estate agent in the state if you don’t know anything about real estate. Of course you can make up for a lack of knowledge by being resourceful but do yourself a favor and learn about what you’re going to lead.

Don’t show up to a “house the homeless” event and expect to lead home construction if you don’t have any idea how a home is supposed to be constructed.

Get the point?

Be a Good Listener

Always listen for feedback from those you lead. Don’t be afraid to take ideas or brainstorm with your team to come up with a solution to a problem. Yes, you will have the final decision in all matters but it’s better to get other perspectives on a problem. It’s better to have many people working together to solve something.

The benefit is not only more ideas floating around but it also helps you out by motivating others. By allowing others to participate or have a say in helping with the decision making process they will work better as a team to make you look good.

They say the greatest leaders are silent.

At the end of the day they don’t get hoisted up on everyones shoulders and they don’t take credit for the teams work; at the end of the day the team says “we did it” and that’s what being a leader is all about.

A real leader works behind the scenes to bring things together without anyone even realizing that you were leading. They probably felt like you were just a very helpful team member. If you treat others as your equal they tend to be more interested in helping you out.

Think of the movie “Gladiator” when Maximus, the leading general, becomes enslaved and has to fight in the arena. He didn’t have to tell anyone he was a general. He didn’t even have to ask anyone to follow him. They followed him because he was that silent leader, full of confidence and knowledge.

People are smart they will pick up on these characteristics.

Be Patient

Always be patient with yourself and with your team members. Things don’t happen automatically and they sure as hell don’t happen instantaneously. If you aren’t patient you’ll become frustrated, anxious, or angry and this will do you absolutely no good.

Think of the times you’ve been at a job where someone had a task handed to them last minute. They panicked and if they were a leader they started tossing stuff at you that made no sense, just trying to get this new thing done.

These people are poor leaders. They feel rushed and you feel rushed and stressed just by being around them. What they really need to do is sit down for 5-10 minutes and think about things before they go around rushing everyone else.

With just a little bit of patience they could organize and direct people more appropriately. The job would get done faster and the end result would be better – for everyone involved.

Not everything is a race, so take the time needed and do things right.