Leadership traits are defined as individual qualities that shape influential leaders. These traits differentiate the potential leader from the crowd; over a period, these traits form the core of any leadership style that is relevant across industries.

When I was a child, the children in our neighborhood would play in a nearby park every evening. Our leader was a boy, one year older than me. He introduced the new children to everyone, taught them the rules of the games we played, and made sure no one felt left out. We also trusted him blindly because he was our savior whenever we messed up. 

Over my long career service, I have learned, unlearned, and relearned different leadership styles, but the core of all these styles remains as above – trust, empathy, leading & mentoring(our leader body was brilliant in it )

Trust 

Do your team members trust you as a leader? Are they sure that you will stand up for them in any eventuality?

This kind of trust empowers members of the team and gives them the courage to innovate, take risks and go out of their comfort zone to deliver audacious results. This is one of the most important cores of leadership that our leader boy practiced so many years ago.

As a leader, being trustworthy is about

Delivering on promises( dependable and consistent)

Being approachable and friendly (people trust leaders they like)

Practicing regularly -authenticity, empathy, and humanity.

Showing support for your team members, even when they make mistakes, including your own (full accountability )

Empathy

Emotional intelligence is widely recognized as a leadership quality, but being transparent about your emotions isn’t. As leaders, it is extremely important to create a safe environment where the team can call out if they are “lost”, or have made a blunder. Accepting the team with their weaknesses and vulnerabilities goes a long way to building trust in the leadership. Leaders therefore should be uncompromising in this culture, catalyzing an empathetic environment within the team, as well as between leadership and the members. In the end, all are human beings, and knowing that the bosses/managers care for their team is a fundamental need to feel safe. When teams feel “safe”, they go out of their way to deliver on promises.

Mentorship

A mentorship is a relationship between two people where the individual with more experience, knowledge, and connections is able to pass along what they have learned to a more junior individual within a certain field. The more senior individual is the mentor, and the more junior individual is the mentee.No matter how talented people are, they crave the guiding hand – the mentor who will teach them the rules of the game! This is an ongoing journey and mentoring people is a great leadership trait. 

At a time when people everywhere are questioning their leaders’ values, these characteristics seem to resonate even more. In the end, the main function of leaders is to develop & nurture more leaders who can shoulder responsibilities in succession. 

As always please share your input!