There are good leaders who drive growth, and there are great leaders who drive movements. What is the difference between them? Here are six qualities great leaders possess and how can you adopt them through your own leadership style.

1. Authenticity

While every great leader learns from the success of others and listens to the market they serve, they also never lose sight of who they are and what they bring to the table. Your principles, ideas, thoughts, decision-making processes and opinions bring value to your organisation. Authentic leaders don’t let power or position sway their values or beliefs; they let their values and beliefs shape their leadership. They are truthful to their purpose, to their team, and most importantly to themselves.

2. Vulnerability

For too long vulnerability has been thought of as a weakness in business, but the truth is it is the foundation of great leadership and the key to winning respect and trust within your team. You don’t need to show your team the highlight reel; they don’t want a robotic leader. Your team will appreciate seeing you show compassion, sadness, and frustration at times and respect your honesty when you give transparent communication and own mistakes and failures.

3. Empathy

The ability to step into your team or customers’ shoes, acknowledge their view, while also being aware of their needs and feelings is critical in today’s changing workplace. Empathy not only helps you to diffuse escalating conflict or complaints quickly and compassionately, but it also creates a more caring and collaborative culture and ensures your team comes to you when there is an issue.

4. Drive

Great leaders don’t just know their why they are driven by it. They know what they want, and are willing to take the necessary actions and risks to achieve it. There is clarity in their purpose, passion in their words and precision in their actions. Their drive also drives others to act. By leveraging their passion, they can charge their team and get them excited to tackle changes and challenges.

5. Decisive

Great leaders aren’t afraid to make decisions. Knowing they won’t always know what the ‘right decision’ is until after it is made, they focus on making the ‘best decision’ with the time and information they have, while keeping the goals and purpose of the organisation front of mind. This decision-making process allows for quick and certain action without the worry of ‘getting it right’ clouding their judgement.

6. Strength focused

Great leaders most importantly understand people and leverage their strengths. They know that giving their team tasks and responsibilities based on what they love, excel at and are passionate about they will increase team performance and in turn organisational performance.

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