Think of great leaders and you probably quickly imagine Winston Churchill declaring “we shall fight on the beaches” during the War. You might also think of Queen Elizabeth I addressing troops with her now well-known “I have the body of a weak, feeble woman” speech before England’s historic naval victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588.

You can probably quickly recall various other examples of great leaders in history – and here are a few examples of qualities that excellent leaders tend to share.

Ability to carefully and cautiously make decisions

What Churchill and Elizabeth particularly had in common was the ability to keep people’s hopes up during tumultuous and uncertain times. Furthermore, despite those times, they remained capable of thinking rationally to ensure that they would make wise decisions.

Job-Interview-Site.com emphasises how well a team leader must make decisions. In fact, “extreme care and caution” should be exercised in the process, the site says.

An eye for the right people for the team

A leader isn’t truly a leader without followers – and those followers should share the leader’s corporate passion and vision, says Personnel Today.

When recruiting for your team, don’t simply hire people who mirror your current workers’ qualities. You would benefit better from putting together a varied team where individual employees can complement strengths and weaknesses of other team members.

The team should also receive training to update their skills. Don’t overlook your need to develop yourself, either; we offer great leadership training opportunities.

Willingness to get stuck in with their team

Resist being the equivalent of a political leader who stays cooped up in an administrative room while all of the fighting is carried out by other people on a distant battlefield.

In business, you will not be respected as a leader unless you are willing to get involved in the same kind of work as the rest of your team.

Ability to set a good example

Here is another way in which you can attract the kind of respect fitting of a good leader: acting as an example of how the overall team should perform and behave.

Admittedly, the world is so fast-paced that, in the attempt to set an example, you might struggle to get it strongly noticed by many of your team’s members. However, the onus remains on you to try – whether you are demonstrating how the others should work, make decisions, or do something else.

Willingness to take calculated risks

Sometimes, you might see opportunities that are gaping but would also require you to take risks. By carefully weighing up what you could potentially gain or lose from taking these risks, you could better assess whether you should go ahead with doing so.

Even a risk doesn’t pay off like you had hoped, just learn from the mistake and move on. By phoning us on 020 3859 0707, you could learn about the staff training courses that we offer and could assist you in reducing the probability of failure with your risk-taking.