Leadership is an important skill, but even more important is the ability to lead well. A strong leader inspires, encourages, and empowers those around them. Here we share with you several of the skills associated with successful leaders and what it means to embody those abilities as a truly great leader.

1. WHAT MAKES A LEADER
TRULY GREAT?

2. With great power
comes great
responsibility
Or so a superhero’s uncle
once told us.

3. And though we don’t
have super powers, as
leaders, we do have
the power to influence
others and the
responsibility to
do it well.

4. There are several traits
associated with being
a successful leader.
Let’s take a look at
them together.

5. As a leader, it is so important that
your words equal your actions. It is
imperative that you… go through a
self-evaluation process on an almost
daily basis to make sure that your
actions are in line with your words.
–Jon Gordon, You Win in the Locker Room First:
The 7 C’s to Build a Winning Team in Business,
Sports, and Life
DEPENDABILITY

6. [A good leader has] an understanding of the goals
and how to get there, as well as an understanding of
how to make goals personal for each staffer.
– Stephanie Diamond, Content Marketing Strategies For Dummies
AWARENESS

7. Your first and foremost job as a
leader is to take charge of your own
energy, and then, help to orchestrate
the energy of those around you.
– Peter Drucker, Peter Drucker’s Five Most
Important Questions: Enduring Wisdom for
Today’s Leaders
OPTIMISM

8. Leaders who operate on the basis of integrity…tell the
truth. They do things on the up-and-up. They engage
in fair, ethical business practices. And they deliver on
their promises.
– Richard Davis, The Intangibles of Leadership:
The 10 Qualities of Superior Executive Performance
HONESTY

9. Leadership is about providing a
vision for the future and helping
others support that vision with the
tools needed to pursue that goal.
That vision can be great or small, but
participating with others in pursuit of
a common good is a wonderful feeling.
– Bill Hughes, Samsung Galaxy S7 For Dummies
COLLABORATION

10. You simply can’t do your best without searching for
new experiences, doing things you’ve never done,
making mistakes, and learning from them.
– Kouzes & Posner, The Leadership Challenge
CURIOSITY

11. There is information overload. More than
ever, there is a need to be able to sift through
the noise and prioritize.
– Rosemarie Withee, Office 365 For Dummies, 2nd Edition
DECISIVENESS

12. Maintaining a beginner’s mindset
helps keep us from becoming victims
of our own successes. We all need
to constantly scan the landscape
and continuously assess our own
business models.
– Alex Osterwalder, Value Proposition
Design: How to Create Products and
Services Customers Want
ADAPTABILITY

13. Your leadership must be rooted in who
you are and what matters most to you.
When you truly know yourself and what
you stand for, it is much easier to know
what to do in any situation.
– Harry Kraemer, Becoming the Best:
Build a World-Class Organization
Through Values-Based Leadership
CONFIDENCE

14. COMMITMENT
There is just no escaping the fact that
the single biggest factor determining
whether an organization is going to get
healthier ­­— or not — is the genuine
commitment and active involvement
of the person in charge.
– Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player:
How to Recognize and Cultivate the
Three Essential Virtues

15. APPROACHABILITY
In the new world, the capacity to establish, develop, and maintain
key relationships both inside and outside your organization is
going to become the primary currency of leadership influence.
– Jeremie Kubicek, 5 Gears: How to Be Present and
Productive When There is Never Enough Time

16. INSPIRATION
Leaders must recognize that leadership is not about
them and their ability to attract followers. Leadership
is about serving others to bring out the best in them.
– Bill George, Discover Your True North

17. As leaders, we must inspire,
encourage, and empower those
around us. By fostering these
skills, you’re on your way to
becoming a truly great leader.
Looking for
more insights from
industry leaders?
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Wiley.com.
Author photos provided by respective authors.
Cover image © AMV Photo / Getty Images
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