6 Qualities of Great Leadership

6 Qualities of Great Leadership – Behind the Scenes

When you look at leaders that you admire, what do you see? Not how they are dressed, but the qualities of great leadership. Today, I’m sharing with you six qualities of great leadership. One way to use this list is to see where you stand with these qualities of great leadership. I am also announcing a partnership with a charity to give away $1000 to a hero on the front line of today’s challenges with the virus and social justice. Join me for this special episode about the qualities of great leadership.

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6 Qualities of Great Leadership: The Transcript

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Disclaimer: This transcript was created using YouTube’s translator tool and that may mean that some of the words, grammar, and typos come from a misinterpretation of the video.

[0:02]
What if you truly understood the qualities of great leadership? When you understand these qualities, you have a chance to embody them. They become a part of who you are. When you make them a part of your identity, you will see profound changes happening all around you. And these qualities are contagious. Make sure you keep tuned in to the end, because we’re going to share with you a special campaign where we’re giving away $1,000 to the heroes on the frontline of today’s challenging times, whether it be through Coronavirus, or black lives matter. We want to look at those people that are heroes, details after the content. So if you want to go right to the end, you can do that.

[0:43]
Now, before I take you through the qualities of great leadership. Let’s look at what’s going on right now. We’re living in a very difficult time. 2020 has been an amazing year, not in a growth sense, but in a chance to really connect with who we are the challenges that we faced as a community, individuals, within families, and across the world, we’ve never seen times like this before. In fact, in my short time of working in the business world, probably 25 years, I’ve never seen anything like what we’re facing today, we have to be prepared as leaders to connect with these messages. We have COVID, that is, you know, caused us to think differently about the way we work, and about the way we engage with each other. We have black lives matter, which is put on the forefront, these conversations about social injustice and about who we are, what we believe in our biases. We also have economic uncertainty that has really caused us to, you know, challenge some of the thoughts we had around our money and our savings and what we do as we move forward as individuals, within families and within our organizations, all of these challenging things, plus many, many more caused us to really think about who we are as leaders. But let me back up for a second, I had a chance to sit down with some amazing leaders. And I asked him this question, what traits? Do you admire that in the best leaders that you have had in your professional life?

[2:15]
Maybe you can think about some of those traits right now. those traits are the keys to you understanding who you want to be as a leader yourself. We’re gonna look at some of those today in this video. In fact, we’re going to go through the six qualities of great leadership. You’re ready, here we go.

[2:35]
Confidence, confidence, and leadership go hand in hand. In fact, it’s impossible to be a great leader without a high degree of confidence, and the best leaders know how to spark confidence in others. In today’s world of social injustice, we must have the confidence to lead others beyond their insecurities. Confidence is something that you actually have to work on. It doesn’t come naturally from All of us. In fact, even if it does come naturally, I would challenge you to think about how you could push it to the next level. The reason I say you must push it to the next level is that every new initiative, and every purpose-driven project that you work on, should call on you to be more of yourself, to push the limits of where you are. So you can serve people to a higher level so that you can inspire others to follow you. And to really be the leader that your team deserves. You’ve got to have confidence.

[3:30]
Confidence is something that you can build. One of the things I’ve seen working with leaders, his confidence is very intentional. You think about showing up in a way that aligns with the confident person you aspire to be. And as you continue to do that, you will continue to level up your confidence and you will continue to pull people along that want to level up their confidence. Now as a leader, your job To in spark, that confidence in others.

[4:03]
So I remind you, one of the great qualities of leadership is confidence.

[4:08]
Now let’s look at courage. Fear is a nasty feeling that stops you from taking a risk that allows you to live with purpose. Being a courageous leader means you can be vulnerable and talk about your own fears that you have overcome so that others can overcome theirs. We won’t overcome today’s fears without the courage to have new conversations about difficult issues. The courage to have conversations about difficult issues is not just about the words you say. Sometimes it’s the courage to engage and listen. In fact, as a white man who has lived with privilege that I didn’t really understand until we’ve put a spotlight on it in recent years, that we have to sit back and do something but before we do something, we have to Think about what’s really going on in our own biases, we have to think about the things that are getting in the way of us being courageous enough to let our leaders lead.

[5:12]
We have to think about what we believe. We have to think about what we think about it. I know that’s a lot of thinking. But you want to make sure that you’re putting in the time so that you know how to serve others in these difficult times. Maybe it’s COVID issues where you know, that courage to get back to work as normal is natural for you. But you’ve got to take time to instill the courage in others to get back to work. If that’s required inside your business. You’ve got to take the time. And working on your own courage means you’re willing to face uncomfortable moments, you lean into them, you know that that’s a moment of growth. Any sign of fear is something that allows you to really put your eyes on something maybe focus a little bit more intently so that you can figure out your next best action. I share this with you because a lot of people don’t see how courage fits into leadership. What I’ve seen from my perspective of working with founders and CEOs around courage is that they must have the courage to have difficult conversations, even when they don’t want to, must make sure that they have the courage to push forward into new decisions that allow the company to take a calculated risk. And to instill courage in others.

[6:31]
You have to work on yourself as a leader to make that happen. Courage is another quality of great leadership. Now let’s look at resilience. Falling down seven times get up eight, a Japanese proverb that sums up resilience in seven words. great leaders know that mistakes and failures are part of the journey. They’re resilient despite their challenges. We have a challenging road ahead of us as 2020 seems Designed to strengthen our resilience muscles 2020 has been a shit show. I said it. It’s been something that has really challenged us of how we educate our children, how we engage as a community, how we visit with other people, or not visit with other people in most cases. 2020 has also challenged us to look at some of the hard beliefs that have really guided us through life in question those beliefs, questions, the biases. The resilience that I’ve seen, a lot of my black friends have to Black Lives Matter is something I really admire. They have stood up for this. And they said they won’t take it. I don’t agree with violent protests. But I understand the reasoning behind it because they’re scared. They’re scared of all of this continuing. I know to say this is a white man, I have never been in walked in their shoes, but I have the resilience To understand that we have to look at these mistakes and look at the challenges that we’re facing and get back up.

[8:08]
That’s really important. And I urge you, leaders to think about how you’re being resilient through all these tough times. These things are not happening to you, they’re happening for you, so that you can rise up and that you can encourage others to rise up. Resilience is a part of that journey. Another important quality of great leaders is resilience.

[8:31]
Now, empathy, leadership is not about the work, it’s about the relationship, empathy, and leadership is not only required, but it is the basis for connection. It has meaning it when you ask, are you okay? empathy is listening to understand beyond the words, leading others means being empathetic, even if you’re too busy with your work. Empathy is one of those things that you have to do an experience in In order to get it and actually improve your skills and talent at being empathetic, you can’t read about it. You can’t just understand the theory. You have to engage, you have to have the conversations, you have to listen, you have to listen beyond the words. One of the strongest characters you can have as a leader is the ability to listen and ask a question to better understand the emotion that you’re getting from the words that they’re experiencing. For example, if you have someone who is afraid to come back to work, you want to talk about their fear. And you want to ask where it’s, you know, really understand this and allow them to make decisions moving forward. And many times it’s better to let them highlight their own choices, and you just be a participant to listen in and help guide them in making the right choice for them. There’s a lot of going on right now that is causing us to be more empathetic.

[10:00]
Hopefully, you’re stepping up as a leader because of the great qualities of leadership, empathy is a game-changer. This next quality is empowerment. We all know that micromanagement is not leadership. The opposite of micromanagement is empowerment. leaders that empower their people believe that the best ideas can come from anyone. They expect their people to have the confidence and courage to make decisions. empowerment is not important. It is essential as we find our way through today’s challenging times. empowerment is the core of people feeling the sense of ownership that is necessary for them to own the solution to the problems they’re facing, to own the goals that they’re being set so that they can really move forward and make it a part of their identity. empowerment is so much more than just, you know, trusting in someone will get the work done. It’s really building Leaving that person, seeing them lifting them up, and helping them through the challenges. But more importantly, empowerment is not doing it for them. Many leaders today believe that they’re serving their employees by helping them make decisions and, and just really telling them what to do because it’s quicker.

[11:19]
But empowerment is knowing when to slow down so that they can look at all the data so they can look at the options in front of them so that they can make decisions. They can figure out which to test or how to test and how to move forward. I often hear leaders say, you know what, one of the things that they really want their employees to do is not just bring them problems, but to bring them solutions. And I urge you to go beyond that. Encourage them to bring you problems with solutions. Also, the thinking that has gotten them to the solutions like show your work, if you will in school, but also how could you test this to determine what’s the right step forward? What is the data behind this telling us all of the elements that really nest To make a strong decision, allowing them to do that themselves instead of us stepping in, and just pulling the trigger for them?

[12:07]
That is not empowerment. empowerment is one of those critical qualities as a great leader that you have to embrace in a deep way you have to be able to step back and not jump in when things get tough. empowerment is the core of that feeling of ownership that I talked about so much on the podcast. Now, the next one is the last one. We’re wrapping up with transparency. There is always a line that we draw in how much do we share with others and leadership. This is called the transparency line. The best leaders embrace remarkable transparency. This means that the level of transparency scares most people so they remark about how crazy it is. secrets are often enemies inside organizations that no trust is important. Transparency is one of those elements where people either feel included or they’re not included, secrets are bound to happen. But the more secrets you have, the wider that transparency line is away from great leadership.

[13:10]
In fact, when I talk to leaders, I see the ones that are courageous and confident enough to have remarkable transparency. And I admire who they are. I admire those big decisions that are hard that they make by sharing with others. Maybe it’s financial data that they share. Maybe it’s teaching them how to see the financial data. Maybe it’s looking beyond the financial data to the strategy that’s driving us forward. Maybe it’s looking at the moves a year down the road or two years down the road. You will always draw the line somewhere. But I will tell you from all the conversations I’ve had really amazing leaders push that remarkable transparency line to they will share everything that is legally allowed to share what is legally allowed, well, maybe salaries aren’t legally allowed to share because it’s not your data. It’s someone something that you have With that relationship with that person with the transparency line, you’ve got to understand where that is. If you’re dancing around it all the time, it’s hard. It’s difficult to dance around that transparency line. So I remind you, being transparent, such a critical element to this. I come to you today to share all of these qualities because we’re running a special kind of campaign here. I say campaign because as a person that has worked with leaders, founders, and their teams to go beyond where they are today. We’ve partnered with, we care, we connect we share. This is something that I’m really excited to share with you.

[14:38]
Partnering with them is about nominating the heroes on the frontlines of today’s difficulties, whether it be COVID whether it be working remotely, whether it be black lives matter or anything else around social injustice, we’re looking for you to nominate people that are living this you can nominate a person you can nominate an organization But we’re going to be donating or awarding $1,000 to the person that is selected next week. You’ve got to get your nomination in now you’ve got to go to week care, we connect we share comm take a look at what we’re doing, who we’re nominating the kind of things we’re doing. But nominate someone in your life. You can nominate yourself, you can nominate your company, you can nominate anyone that you feel like is sacrificing for others. We care we connect we share comm just make sure you go to it now nominate someone. Don’t wait. This only lasts for a limited amount of time. That deadline is coming up in a few days. So make sure you do it right now. As a reminder wecareweconnectweshare.com I know it’s a mouthful, but you want to make sure that you nominate someone. We as an organization, and my wife and my team are donating $1,000 for the people that are awarded that you designation that hero. So we will be looking at those evaluating who gets the award. And we’re happy to share this with you because we’ve been looking for places to give back to the frontline workers. We as an organization, really want to make sure that we are leading by example we want to give back. So thank you for listening in today’s message, I can’t wait to share with you more about it. When we put out and nominate actually who wins and shares who wins. So again, wecareweconnectweshare.com

[16:31]
That’s it. My name is Gene Hammett. I work with leaders and their teams through the defining moments of their own success to go beyond where they are today. This is a behind the scenes video, looking at the qualities of great leadership. I share this with you and share with you the move that we’re doing inside partnering with we care we connect we share make sure you nominate someone today. As always lead with courage. We’ll see you next time.

Disclaimer: This transcript was created using YouTube’s translator tool and that may mean that some of the words, grammar, and typos come from a misinterpretation of the video.

 

6 Qualities of Great Leadership

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