11 Aug What Defines a Great Leader?

Having strong leadership in today’s fast-paced business world is more crucial than it ever has been. But what are the qualities that truly define a great leader? A company’s potential success can be measured by how effective their leadership and executive team is at running their business. This is why utilizing an executive search firm like Scion Executive Search can be effective in finding an individual with excellent leadership skills for your company. In this article, you will find information about what defines a great leader, why it’s important to look for these qualities in a leadership role, and how Scion Executive Search can help you reach your business goals with our proven executive search services.

The Different Types of Leadership Styles

What makes a great leader? If you’re in an executive role or management role, it’s important to understand what type of leadership style you can define yourself as. There are seven primary leadership styles.

• Authoritative – Authoritative leaders are known for being good team motivators, building strong relationships, encouraging collaboration between teams, and being creative.
• Autocratic –these types of leaders are efficient decision makers, reduces stress by making quick decisions, take charge by keeping teams consistent, and is clear when assigning roles and duties.
• Democratic –Democratic leaders are innovative, emphasize employee engagement, highly productive, and hold their teams accountable.
• Coaching –these leaders encourage communication and collaboration, help people improve their soft skills and hard skills so they can perform at their top capabilities, makes clear objectives and goals, and promote trust by developing talent to create strong team relationships.
• Pacesetting –Pacesetting leaders are often highly motivated, lead teams that need very little direction, and inspire high performance and high quality from their employees.
• Laissez-faire –Laissez-faire managers encourage trust between their team members, inspire independent thinking, empower individuals to succeed, and promote self-managing teams.
• Affiliative –an Affiliative leader offers more opportunities for diversity, promotes cross-functional working relationships, allows teams to handle challenges with emotional intelligence, and builds trust within their organization.

Traits of a Successful Leader

Effective leaders will often have a select group of traits that can vary from each individual. However, if you’re looking to hire a great leader, looking for these traits can help you save time and resources in your search for your next business leader.

Trait #1: Passion

The first leadership quality we will discuss is passion. Effective leadership and passion can go hand in hand, and some of the most successful executives have been extremely passionate about the work that they do, and they are not afraid to show it proudly. A passionate leader will be able to enjoy their work and spread that infectious enthusiasm down to their employees and teams. A passionate leader can bring a company success and influence a more positive workplace culture that breeds more success.

Trait #2: Inspirational

One of the essential leadership qualities of any executive is being able to inspire employees and teams to create a great product or service. If a leader can properly inspire their team, the work will reflect that positive outlook. This can also come from nurturing talent from within and allowing employees to develop more useful skills that help them continually add value to the company. Each individual employee has a different personality, but a good executive can inspire each individual to bring out the best in them. Keeping a positive and encouraging demeanor, praising employees when it’s due, and taking the time to coach or train in both good and bad times keeps employees inspired to work hard for their leader to reach the common goal and organizational goals.

Trait #3: Communication

Another one of the essential qualities of a leadership position is effective communication skills. An effective executive will make sure that their plans and goals are specifically communicated with their team members. They will often ask for feedback or comments on certain aspects of their action plan or goals and practice active listening when taking these into account. A successful executive will be able to share information in a way that is completely understood by others. Being an effective communicator is one of the most important leadership characteristics that major corporations and companies look for, as they will often have information that is relayed amongst multiple team members, so communication breakdowns cannot happen.

Trait #4: Coaching

A great leader is also a great coach when they need to be. Along with being inspirational, passionate, and having an infectious energy about them, being able to coach up an employee effectively at the right time is one of the more underrated personality traits that an executive or manager can have. An outstanding leader can empower their employees with great coaching and feedback. If an employee makes a mistake during a project, it’s more effective to provide coaching points and positive feedback rather than make a rash decision or reprimand the employee without taking the time to address the issue. Being a positive coach to your employees can help build a strong company culture that will allow you to not only grow your talent but also retain and attract top talent.

Trait #5: Trust

As an executive leader, it’s important to have trust in your employees and your team members. It’s an essential part of building a strong organizational culture and setting your business up for future success. A great leader must be able to trust those around them to do what they can to reach their goals accurately and effectively. Trust works both ways, so a great leader must be able to build strong relationships with the people around them. Having trust in your employees can lead to business success, as well as having strong teamwork within your organization and improving the professional lives of the employees within your team.

Looking For Your Next Great Leader? Scion Executive Search Provides Award-Winning Executive Search Services!

Is your company in need of strong leaders with these leadership traits? Scion Executive Search is an award-winning executive search firm that provides executive search services in all fifty states! Scion Executive Search has partnered with many top companies in the country to find them effective leaders, as well as performing retained search services. Scion has a team of tenured executive search recruiters that can find the perfect fit for your team. If you are looking to add an experienced leader to your leadership team, visit our website to learn more about how we can help your company or contact us today to start a search!