Much of what is taught is, in fact, not leadership at all but management. It is entirely possible to learn and even to put into practice what is taught and still fail at being a good leader. The essential components of leadership have remained more or less constant: intelligence, insight, instinct, vision, communication, discipline, courage, constancy.
The common man just discovered some tips for leadership traits from (Mark Sarner, president of Manifest Communications, Canada's leading social-marketing agency) which he thinks would be useful for the leaders while leading their teams.
1. Thinking: Leaders must know how to gather, sort, and structure information, and then connect it in new ways to create intelligence. Today, being informed is confused with being smart.
2. Seeing: Leadership requires vision. And developing a vision requires the ability to see. To look backward and see clearly what has happened and avoid the mistakes happened in the past. To see what's in front of your nose, the present tense. To see ahead to the next day when the challenges will be greater. To see the future that will become reality
3. Feeling: Yes, empathy for the led is vital. As Michael Hammer, coauthor of Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution, says, "All change is loss. Even when change is for the better, there is still loss." Leadership is not simply a form of therapy, however. The essential feeling is the one in your gut where morality and certainty live. The right way ahead is not in the data. It is an informed intuitiveness. This is where charisma comes from.
4. Listening: All can hear. But only a few really listen. And too most of the people only listen to themselves. A leader has to listen to colleagues and collaborators, listen to markets and constituencies, and listen to himself -- all through the endless din of the present, the ominous voices of the past, and the deafening silence portending the future -- is vital.
5. Speaking: The watershed capacity in leadership is unquestionably communication. Through it, people are informed, convinced, united, motivated, and directed -- things that are critical to group enterprise from the inside and to buy-in on the outside. The powers to inform and persuade win the battles for hearts and minds.
6. Walking: The art and science of putting one foot in front of the other, sometimes referred to as "waking the talk," is the "doing" part of leading. Credibility comes from being first through the door to the unknown. Standing in one place, or stepping back while others take risks to make the frontier safe for others, simply doesn't cut it. Moving forward is not a leap or a sprint but a plodding process.
7. Fitness: Leadership requires strength and endurance in all areas -- physical, mental, and moral. Because leadership is a heavy load and it’s a long journey that drains resources.
The Leadership traits seem to be very basic in nature but are powerful tools contributing to the vision and the mission of the organisation.
