14 Leadership Traits - Part III

Welcome back to my Leadership Traits series. This is part 3 of my 4-part series. For those new to the site, in part I we covered Justice, Judgment, and Dependability. In part II we dove into some of the more important traits, Initiative, Decisiveness, and Tact. And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce you to Integrity, Enthusiasm, Bearing, Unselfishness, and Courage.

1. Integrity: This is another of the most important leadership traits and, in my experience, is one of the most misunderstood and ineffectively implemented traits. The problem is that, all too often, leaders are willing to compromise their integrity for various reasons; these compromises are usually chalked up to nothing more than “little white lies” that are looked at as something of a necessary evil. That’s unfortunate, because, as a leader, it’s probably the single biggest factor in losing your subordinates’ respect. Listen, people aren’t idiots, they know when they’re being lied to, and if they don’t this time, they’ll figure it out eventually. If you lie to your subordinates, they will find out and they will lose respect for you. Once you’ve lost their respect, your job as a leader is lost; give up, because you’ve screwed yourself.Don’t make promises you’re not sure you can keep. Don’t even tell little “white lies” to your subordinates or around your subordinates, or at all for that matter. If you had to go to the doctor for an STD and a subordinate asks where you were, just tell them you had some personal errands to take care of. You don’t have to tell them everything, but you can’t hide anything. When you promise something, deliver, no excuses…none. It also means you take responsibility for errors in judgment; if you promise an employee $15/hour and it turns out to be too much, too bad, you pay them what you owe them and negotiate afterwards or let them go, but you sure as hell don’t come back and say, “well, I can’t give you $15, how about $12/hour?” You need to have a near irrational sense of integrity; never ever ever compromise your integrity in any way for any reason.
2. Enthusiasm: Pretty simple. Enthusiasm means you approach each task with optimism and a cheerful attitude, even if you don’t necessarily agree with or enjoy the task. If it has to be done, you won’t do your subordinates any good pouting about it. Does your job description include taking out the trash? Unless you’re a janitor, probably not; but guess what? Enthusiasm involves doing other people’s jobs because they have to be done and not whining about it like a little 2-year-old girl. The person who skipped out on his or her job can be dealt with later, for now, get the job done, even if it’s not in your job description, and do it with a smile on your face.

Understanding and belief in your mission will add to your enthusiasm for your job. Try to understand why even uninteresting jobs must be done.

3. Bearing: Bearing is the way you conduct and carry yourself. Do you appear calm and confident, or do you mope around with your shoulders hunched over like your mama just whipped your behind? Your manner should reflect alertness, competence, confidence and control. This also means that you don’t lose your temper, you don’t fight, you don’t lose control of your emotions. Why? Because no one wants to follow a leader who can’t even control his or her own emotions.

To develop bearing, you should hold yourself to the highest standards of personal conduct. Never be content with meeting only the minimum requirements.

4. Unselfishness: Unselfishness means you avoid making yourself comfortable at the expense of others. In the Marines this means that Leaders are the last to eat; if all the food’s gone, they don’t eat. In the workplace it means that your job as a leader is nothing more than to facilitate the high performance of those you lead. A leader does not exist for himself, he exists solely to see that his team succeeds. Unselfishness can be summed up in this quote by Paul “Bear” Bryant:

If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, then we did it. If anything goes really good, then you did it. That’s all it takes to get people to win football games.

5. Courage: Wow! This one is so incredibly important for the success of every person on this Earth, not just leaders. Courage comes in many forms, but the kind of courage we most often need is moral courage. None of the 14 Leadership traits can be effectively implemented without a degree of moral courage. A leader has to decide what is right and have the courage to stand by that decision, even in the face of outside pressure. Are you afraid you may lose your job if you maintain your integrity on an issue? Courage is what is needed to stare that possibility in the face and not budge. You may find yourself in a situation where you will lose your job if you don’t compromise your integrity or one of the other leadership traits, courage is what allows you to stare that possibility in the face and act anyway. Another incredibly important application of courage is self-analysis. No one likes to admit that they have flaws; courage allows you to accept your flaws and work to improve them rather than pretending they don’t exist in the first place.

If you fear doing certain things required in your daily life, force yourself to do them until you can control your reaction.

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