Collarfinder

You can't be a great leader if you don't have these 5 traits

Dreaming of becoming a leader someday? Dreaming of running your own empire and finally get the opportunity to own your time, and not being a slave working for a 9 to 5 job that you absolutely abhor? That’s a good dream, mate! If you’re dreaming that, then congratulations! You have a dream, an ambition to become more, that not a lot of people have. But being a leader is not a walk in the park. Have you ever wondered why not a lot of people are entrepreneurs? Most people stay as being an employee, have you ever wondered why? Well, I’ll tell you the answer: it’s hard! Yes, being a leader is so hard, that if it was easy then everyone would’ve done it right now. We write in the most honest way, so here are 5 secrets that nobody tells you about being a leader.

1. You can’t be a leader if you don’t know how to handle this one person. 

You’re probably guessing who this person is, aren’t you? I’ll give you a hint: she/he looks like you, she’s/he’s always with you, she/he talks like you, and she/he is you.

Surprised, aren’t you?

Yes, it’s you. You are the person that I’m pertaining to! This is the fastest way to assess whether you’re fit to lead a group or not. You don’t need someone’s validation to tell you that you can be a great leader. You can do the assessing on your own!

You can ask yourself a few basic questions:

  • Can I beat the deadline?

  • Can I self manage myself when it comes to work that my boss is trying to make me do whenever he/she is not around?

  • Can I be responsible for the small tasks? If I can do the small tasks properly, then I can be responsible for the big tasks, too!

If the answer is “yes” then it’s a good sign. I’ll leave this section of the article with a question so that it would stick with you:

“How can you able to manage a team (big or small team), if you don’t know the art of self managing? It is only through self managing that initially qualifies one to lead a team.”

2. YOU CAN’T BE A LEADER IF YOU DON’T LIKE TO HANDLE THE MOST DIFFICULT THING TO HANDLE IN THIS WORLD.

Being a leader is a fancy, because we picture the fancy happenings inside our own minds. You know, you get to have your own secretary doing the meeting schedule for you, you get to be the ultimate boss at your empire, what you say would be the final decision, absolutely heaven, isn’t it? We could see no downside of being a leader, but having a lot of perks comes with a little bit of disadvantage, too. Be ready mate, because you’re going to handle the most difficult thing to handle in this world if you’re a leader, and that’s: your people!

Yes, you heard me right, your people, to put it simply:

“People are the hardest thing to manage in this world, especially for the leaders out there.”

You can’t control the minds of people; you can have more of a chance to find the error on your program code, than to stop people from resigning from your company. You can’t tell people to stop their bad behaviour that’s deeply affecting the productivity of your business; you also can’t stop them from displaying a bad attitude towards you and your business, and more.

My point here is: you can never control what other people do, and that’s not to say that what they’re going to do would not return stress for you, because trust me, it would, especially if it’s a bad one.

This article is saying the complete truth, so, if you don’t want to handle people, don’t be a leader! But if you think you can, then congratulations. You’re an uncommon one!

Cheers mate!

3. BE THE MOST OPTIMISTIC IN THE WORLD.

Expect challenges to come your way as a leader, it’s inevitable to not experience it, but if there’s one thing that I don’t want you to do whenever you’re faced with any kind of challenge, it’s this: to be negative. Please don’t do this when you’re leading a team, no matter how big the problem that you’re facing, don’t show your teammates that you’re experiencing negative thoughts, too; never show that you’re being uncourageous. You have to be the last one to be negative, whenever you’re leading a team; you have to get in the optimistic mindset, even if you’re not the most optimistic person in the world. Remember, you’re the driver of the team, so it’s not good if you’re the first one to say:

  • Too bad, we lost a major client today. We’ll never get another good one like this.

  • A misunderstanding between us and the client happened, we’re going downhill.

  • We’re going to fail.

Instead, what you should do is to have a solutions mindset!
So, what’s the formula for this? Well, it’s this:

Solutions mindset + optimistic mindset = Problem being resolved!

4. YOU CAN’T BE A LEADER IF YOU’RE SCARED TO LET GO.

What do I mean by this? Isn’t this principle applicable only in love? Well, no, it also applies to leadership, too. I’ll give you one scenario for this. Say, you’re leading a small team composed of 5 people and you’re included in it, because hey you’re the leader of the team, though. All of the tasks had been delegated to your teammates properly, and everything is going smoothly. But as you observe the workflow of your team, there’s one problem that arises. You noticed that one of your team member doesn’t cooperate that much. Not cooperating in the sense that he always gives a reason as to why he hasn’t done his tasks yet, not cooperating in the sense that he’s not submitting the tasks on time, not talking to you as the leader of the team, and more. You notice it from one person only, but the rest of the team members are doing absolutely well. What would you do then if you’re in this kind of situation? You’re the driver of the team, and your decisions make a major impact for the overall success of your team.

Would you allow him to stay on your team and skip the need for conflict, or would you address the problem by letting him go? In other words, would you want your team to hinder its success and affect its overall productivity by letting him stay or would you look at the bigger picture of your team, and let him go, because you know that if you don’t do it, it would affect the whole team? It’s easy to imagine this kind of situation, but whenever you’re faced with it, it’s very hard to decide on the decision that you would do next, because I’ve experienced this firsthand.

My point is, you can’t be a leader if you choose to let him linger on your team and use your emotions for the decision making process, you have to be objective and smart enough to let that person go, because you won’t allow the team to fail just because of one person failing to cooperate, and hey your decision is not for your own sake, but it’s for the team’s sake as well!

Oh, by the way, if no one ever told you this principle today, then I would: In a team, it’s always easy to assume that the leader is the most important component for the team to run effectively and smoothly. Yes, it is, but in a team, every person incorporated on that team is relevant! It’s not to say that the one doing the managerial task is more important than the one who does the documentation part of the job, though. No, it’s not like that, in a team, each and every person is important, whether that person is doing a small task or a big one, because when you combine all of the tasks that every person is doing inside a team, it would result to a greater whole. So, everyone on the team is connected. When one fails to do his or her own task, everything fails; it’s a domino effect!

One last thing, mate; if you ever find yourself facing this kind of situation down the road, go back to this article, and read it again, and you’ll certainly know what to do. You’re not going to be like me anymore, a naive leader who doesn’t know what to do when you have a toxic member in your group. You’ll now know what to do. Cheers!
You’re very much welcome in advance, mate!

5. YOU CAN’T BE A LEADER IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE IDEA OF NOT BEING LIKED.

If you’re being offered a role of being a leader in any type of corporation or life’s calling you to it and you’re expected to handle a small team, I’m telling you early on to not accept that responsibility if you’re not fine with being disliked, because here’s the honest truth: if you’re going to be a leader of any kind, you have to be fine with being disliked! If you’re a people pleaser, then I’m afraid to say this to you: you can’t lead a team like that!

As a leader, it’s impossible to not be brutally honest with your approach on your team members. If you see that team member of yours not doing his own task, you can’t be a coward and allow him to continue on doing nothing; of course, as expected, you’re going to call him off for his doings or should I say lack thereof. That’s not to say that that member of your team would not take it personally, or hold a grudge against you for that warning that you gave, though; that zone is completely out of your control.

Here’s the key: everyone’s different, mate! Everybody has different personalities, different principles in life, therefore not everyone would have the same type of leadership style, and you have to be okay that not everyone is going to like your unique way of leading people.
If you’re going to cry and be sad just because someone doesn’t like your leadership style, then you’re not fit to become a leader. Here’s the takeaway: Don’t waste your time worrying about whether they like it or not, that’s not your job (to make them like you) anyway. Just lead according to your own unique way.

RECOMMEND FOR YOU