What Every Great Leader Needs

Written for EO by Jackie Roberson.

When you’re managing a business and trying to grow it, being able to lead a team to greatness is key. You know you must hire the right people, learn how to delegate and communicate effectively to be a strong leader. But beyond these basics, what do truly great leaders need? Consider these four key traits.

1. A Growth Mindset

Listen to interviews with some of the most well-regarded leaders around the world, and you’ll hear them talk about how they continually learn new things and try to develop themselves. This is their growth mindset at work. The best entrepreneurs and managers are people who are open to new experiences, ideas, opinions and information.

To join their ranks, look for opportunities for growth. For example, you might choose to enroll in an MBA so you can get a thorough understanding of the ins and outs of business. Other options? Attend workshops, conferences, seminars, trade shows or networking events or regularly read books, magazines, newsletters, reports, blogs and more.

Look for mentoring programs, business associations and clubs you can join too, as speaking with other experienced, qualified people can provide excellent learning opportunities.

2. Focus

Top leaders are also usually known for their ability to focus. After all, when you want to achieve big things, you must be able to set aside all distractions and concentrate purely on your goals and plans. Focused leaders are much more productive than others and know where to best spend their time, energy and money.

Develop the ability to focus, and you will be able to consistently stay on task, be better organized, notice risks and opportunities sooner, understand the impacts of decisions and find ways to cut costs and streamlines processes in your business.

People who are focused lead by example and inspire their employees. Plus, they develop a name as an expert in their field more quickly.

3. Flexibility

No matter how careful and proactive you are, you can’t control everything in business. You will find that employees, investors, suppliers, customers and other organizations do things you simply can’t control. In addition, climate changes and other external factors can cause kinks. As such, it’s vital that you know how to adapt.

Flexible leaders don’t go to pieces when they don’t get their own way or become frozen with indecisions because their plans go awry. This means they don’t make rash decisions when they’re in a negative, emotional state; they work out how to move forward, and they help their team stay calm during a crisis. These are all hallmarks of excellent leaders.

Flexibility is necessary when it comes to taking advantage of potential opportunities and ideas. If you’re someone who is rigid and unmovable, you may miss out on taking advantage of exciting new options which become available, or you could dismiss good ideas that help you take your organization to new heights.

4. Resilience

While there are benefits to being an entrepreneur, there are definitely challenges as well. When you’re running a business, you must be resilient if you want to be able to handle the bad times.

Leaders who are resilient have the ability to persevere. Even if they keep getting told “no,” they’ll look for other ways or different opportunities. Resilient people are also good at learning from their mistakes. Rather than seeing a misstep as the end of the line, those with resiliency understand it’s normal for things to go wrong on occasion. They know when to recognize when a circumstance is out of their control.

Great leadership can, eventually, lead to great business growth. Focus your self-development efforts on these key traits for maximum growth.

Jackie is a content coordinator and contributor who writes on technology, home life, business management and education.