The 14 Leadership Traits, Part IV

Welcome back for the 4th and final installment of 4-part 14 Leadership Traits Series. In case you missed the previous two, in Part I I covered Justice, Judgment, and Dependability. Part II covered Initiative, Decisiveness, and Tact, and Part III covered Integrity, Enthusiasm, Bearing, Unselfishness, and Courage. We’ve only got three left, and those are Knowledge, Loyalty, and Endurance.

Knowledge: Well, this is a no-brainer, so I won’t go into too much detail. Leaders need knowledge of a broad range of subjects; leadership really is a all-encompassing job. The only thing a leader needs to be an expert on is people; you don’t need to have intimate knowledge of every aspect of your industry, when you’re a leader, your industry is people and they are the resources with the technical know-how; you just need to know how to utilize those resources efficiently. Don’t get me wrong, whatever your industry, you must have an understanding of the products and services you offer, as well as the market you operate within, but you don’t need to be an expert in either.

Loyalty: This is a shaky one. A leader needs to support his subordinates, but he can’t stand by them no matter what. Listen, if I hire an employee and he’s stealing from the company, I’m not going to support him, I’m going to fire him. Loyalty to ideals is the only type of loyalty that makes any sense.

Persistence: The Marines use the term Endurance, but that alludes too much to the physical, when most of you aren’t hiking 30 miles a day through enemy territory, and neither am I. Persistence is another one of the big ones and is something that very few people really have enough of. The fact is, you will fail, and you will fail over and over again; those who succeed get up over and over and try again. I found a great quote about persistence that I think you’ll like by Thomas Edison:

“Many of life’s failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

In closing, I’d like to mention one more thing. Leading others is tough, and at times you’ll feel like you have to do everything perfectly and make no mistakes, meanwhile everyone around you tells a little lie here and there, loses enthusiasm occasionally, or even lacks courage at times. But like an anonymous soothsayer once said,

“One of the sobering characteristics of leadership is that leaders are judged to a greater degree than followers.”

As a leader you have to hold yourself to a higher standard than anyone else, a much higher standard. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “Practice what you preach;” that couldn’t be more true than when you’re in a position of leadership. People will take whatever example you set more serious than anything you say. If what you say and what you do are two different things, don’t ever expect people to follow you.

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