What are the qualities of a good leader?

This is a crucial question that founders need to consider as they look to put in place a confident and competent leadership team around them to enable the business to scale comfortably.

Whilst some of the specific qualities are going to be either company specific and / or subjective there are a few universal ones which in our view are non-negiotables.

1. Humility
   
   First time or unsure leaders aren’t often unable to admit when they have got something wrong or don’t know how to solve a problem presented to them. They bluff it. Whereas a good leader has a healthy dose of humility which shows itself regularly. They accept responsibility for the things that don’t go to plan or meet expectations and they are always willing to vocalise when they don’t know something. They accept that leadership is a journey and at certain times they are going to need the support and guidance of others to succeed. 
   

2. Proactivity
   
   Leaders need to lead! A leader's role is all about generating a desired outcome. The outcome could be a financial one, or achieving a pre-set target  or completing a specific project but all of these require a large amount of proactivity. They need to be the one setting the pace, organising their team and bringing strategic thinking. The best leaders operate on the front foot, are slightly ahead of those they are leading in their thinking and execution.
   

3. Resilience
   
   Plans often don’t work out exactly as we had hoped or expected, so a key attribute for leaders to have is resilience. Leadership is easy when you have a good team around you and targets are being achieved comfortably but there are going to be times when the opposite is true, and that is when you find out how good a leader is. Coping with uncertainty, leading through a tough period and dealing with challenging external situations are part of leadership and to survive these leaders need a certain level of resilience. They need to show their team the qualities and mindset the team will need to adopt to work through these periods. They need to be confident externally even when they are not always feeling so internally. 
   

4. Agility
   
   Aligned with resilience is the ability to be comfortable changing plans as the situation changes. They need to be able to think on their feet when the situation requires it, but they also need to be comfortable pausing and considering different options before proceeding. Basically, they need an agile mindset where they are able to consider a number of different scenarios and opinions simultaneously to work out the optimal solution. This also means that they need to be able to say that they were wrong and be able to change their position or point of view based on new information.
   

5. Expertise 
   
   It always helps a leader's credibility and authority if they have a high degree of expertise in a specific area of the business. This expertise adds to their leadership gravitas as long as the 4 other qualities are also present. Expertise on its own just makes someone an authority on a specific subject, not necessarily an effective leader. But expertise combined with the other factors such as humility can turn a technician who people respect into a leader they admire.

This is not an exhaustive but all of the great leaders we have worked with have these attributes, so it would seem a good checklist to start from when you are looking to recruit or promote someone into a leadership position

It’s time to build a leadership team that doesn’t just support your business
— they lead it.

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