John Quincy Adams once said, “ As a leader, your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more.” A leader must inspire their team; they must have courage, accountability, critical thinking skills, and sympathy to do so.
Courage is the ability to do something frightening despite the fear. Accountability is taking responsibility for your actions. Critical thinking is the ability to analyze an issue and form a logical judgment accordingly. Sympathy is the understanding of other’s feelings and thoughts. Courage, accountability, critical thinking skills, and sympathy are the traits that make up a good leader.
“Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues because upon it, all others depend(Winston Churchill).” First, a leader is courageous for themselves. Failures may happen, but they must never avoid taking risks. To face uncertainties daily, but always be ready to change ideas confidently. Then, they need to be courageous for others. They need to remain calm and confident while making a decision regardless of the circumstances, for others will do the same. They need to be able to take someone who is paralyzed with fear and give them a reason to overcome it.
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Next, “A good leader takes little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit.”(Arnold H. Glasow) On one hand, a leader keeps everyone accountable for their actions, and should always encourage and reward. On the other hand, leaders need to realize other’s mistakes and help them throw their struggles. As a result, making them live up to the leader’s expectations and the persons.
Also, a great leader takes responsibility for their actions. They should never blame others or seek rewards for something going wrong or right because of them. They should always appreciate the entire team for the success of any project not feel it was only because of them.
“Strategy is not the consequence of planning, but the opposite: it’s the starting point.” (Henry Mintzberg) At some stage of their career, each leader has to make difficult and unwanted decisions. However, a leader should be able to perfectly analyze the situation, trust their intuition. They need to be able to draw on their experience and make choices that deliver the desired results. Next, they have to have wonderful foresight.
They should be able to suggest what to do well in advance. Also, they must possess the ability to be flexible to cope with uncertainties and sudden changes and be able to adapt their leadership and decision making style depending upon the circumstances.
Finally, “Motivation is everything. You can do the work of two people, but you can’t be two people. Instead, you have to inspire the next guy down the line and get him to inspire his people.” (Lee Iacocca)
People are drawn towards leaders who are understanding of them. On one hand, this can be good. these leaders think out of the box, they are optimistic, determined to understand, their body language says they care about what you think, and they communicate with other’s feelings in mind. It can make people comfortable to express their ideas bettering the team.
On the other hand, it hurts the team. It can allow people to become too comfortable causing the leader to lose control.
In sum, a leader is not a great leader without Courage, accountability, critical thinking skills, and sympathy. First, Courage gives other people the confidence to move past their hardships allowing them to do more. Second, accountability furthers people’s understanding of what’s wanted of them and what’s needed. Third, critical thinking skills allow people to become more by showing more options to do more. Finally, sympathy allows people to dream more, for people are more comfortable.
