Introduction

Leadership is a skill that everyone should develop and cultivate. Being a leader does not necessarily mean being a manager or a politician – it could also mean being a thought leader or even being a great parent. The ability to inspire, command and guide others is precious and can help you accomplish more and even raises your confidence and self-worth.

In this guide, we will examine what it takes to be a leader by looking at some of the essential traits that history’s most outstanding exhibit. Every leader is different, and part of your journey to becoming one will be discovering your own ‘leadership style.’ With that said, though, there are still definitely some common traits that you can develop and some lessons we can learn from influential figures in history. And you’ll find that, in some ways, the most important aspects of being a great leader are not what you would expect.

I hope this guide will change how you approach leadership and help you to improve your results drastically.

1. A Great Leader Does Not Need to be Liked

Should a great leader be feared or liked?

The answer is that it doesn’t matter. Most important is that you focus less on trying to be everyone’s friend and more on getting results.

Ultimately, a leader is someone trying to accomplish a goal by leveraging the power of their team. If your goal is to increase turnover, then you are a good leader if you increase turnover. It doesn’t matter if you are liked along the way.

And sometimes, you will have to make hard decisions or break bad news. It would help if you were willing to do that and not too concerned with how it makes you ‘look.’ For example, if your superiors tell you that you and your team will need to work late, you must pass on that information and not make excuses. The temptation here is to complain along.

With your staff, to whine about how unfair it is and make rude comments about the capabilities of your higher-ups.

All this makes you look unprofessional, damages your team’s enthusiasm, and makes everyone question the rules they’re being asked to follow.

It is one of the biggest problems with politics too. To get re-elected, a leader needs to make positive changes quickly so that the electorate can see the results.

The problem is that some projects only yield results over a long period and might even hurt the economy in the short term. Making those decisions would be political suicide, so our country is only ever putting out fires, never growing! It is something that a few famous leaders have managed to break away from. Arnold Schwarzenegger most recently discussed this and the value of being willing to make hard decisions.

You don’t have to be unpleasant, but be willing to let your reputation take the hit when it needs to!

2. A Great Leader Takes Responsibility