12 Habits of Exceptional Leaders

One of the most popularDilbertcomic strips in the cartoon’s history begins with Dilbert’s boss relaying senior leadership’s explanation for the company’s low profits. In response to his boss, Dilbert asks incredulously, “So they’re saying that profits went up because of great leadership and down because of a weak economy?” To which Dilbert’s boss replies, “These meetings will go faster if you stop putting things in context.”

Great leadership is indeed a difficult thing to pin down and understand. 当你为一个伟大的领导者工作时，你会认识一个伟大的领导者，但即使是他们也很难解释他们所做的事情的细节，这使得他们的领导如此有效。伟大的领导是动态的; 它将各种独特的技能融合为一个整体。

Below are 12 essential behaviors that exceptional leaders rely on every day. Give them a try and you can become a better leader today.

1.勇气

“勇气是使所有其他美德成为可能的第一美德。” —Aristotle

人们将拭目以待，看看领导者是否勇敢，然后才愿意跟随他或她的领导。人们需要领导者的勇气。他们需要一个能够做出艰难决定并关注团队利益的人。他们需要一位领导者，当事情变得艰难时，他会坚持到底。当他们的领导人这样做时，人们更有可能表现出勇气。

对于勇敢的领导者来说，逆境是一个可喜的考验。就像铁匠对炽热的熨斗的造型一样，逆境是一场大火的考验，可以改善领导者并提高他们的比赛水平。逆境鼓舞了勇敢的领导人，使他们更加致力于自己的战略方向。

缺乏勇气的领导者只是走上公司路线。 They follow the safest path—the path of least resistance—because they’d rather cover their backside than lead.

2. Effective Communication

“我们的沟通方式越精细，沟通就越少。” —Joseph priestley

沟通是领导的真正工作。这是领导者每天如何实现目标的基本要素。除非你是一个伟大的沟通者，否则你不可能成为一个伟大的领导者。

伟大的沟通者激励着人们。 They create a connection with their followers that is real, emotional, and personal, regardless of any physical distance between them. 优秀的沟通者通过对人的理解和直接对他们的需求说话的能力来建立这种联系。

3.慷慨

“A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit.”—John Maxwell

伟大的领导人很慷慨。他们分享信用并热情赞扬。他们对追随者的成功和对自己的成功一样坚定。58003

4.谦逊

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”—C.S. 刘易斯

伟大的领导者很谦虚。他们不允许自己的权威地位让他们觉得自己比任何人都好。 As such, they don’t hesitate to jump in and do the dirty work when needed, and they won’t ask their followers to do anything they wouldn’t be willing to do themselves.

5.自我意识

“It is absurd that a man should rule others, who cannot rule himself.”—Latin proverb

Contrary to what Dilbert might have us believe, leaders’ gaps in self-awareness are rarely due to deceitful, Machiavellian motives, or severe character deficits. In most cases, leaders—like everyone else—view themselves in a more favorable light than other people do.

Self-awareness is the foundation of emotional intelligence, a skill that 90% of top performing leaders possess in abundance. 伟大的领导者高度的自我意识意味着他们不仅对自己的领导风格有清晰而准确的形象，而且对自己的优势和劣势也有清晰而准确的形象。他们知道自己在哪里发光，在哪里软弱，他们有有效的策略来依靠自己的优势和弥补自己的劣势。

6.坚持黄金法则1

“The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.”—Jon Wolfgang von Goethe

The Golden Rule—treat others as you want to be treated—assumes that all people are the same. 它假设，如果您以希望领导者对待您的方式对待追随者，他们会很高兴。它忽略了人们受到截然不同的事物的激励。一个人喜欢公众认可，而另一个人讨厌成为关注的中心。

伟大的领导者不会像对待别人那样对待别人。相反，他们将黄金法则走得更远，并按照每个人的喜好对待每个人。 Great leaders learn what makes people tick, recognize their needs in the moment, and adapt their leadership style accordingly.

7. passion

“If you just work on stuff that you like and are passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.”—Mark Zuckerberg

激情和热情具有感染力。无聊和冷漠也是如此。没有人愿意为一个对自己的工作不感兴趣的老板工作，甚至没有人愿意为一个刚刚走过场的老板工作。伟大的领导者对自己的工作充满热情，他们努力与周围的每个人分享这种热情。

8.传染性

“领导力的本质是你必须有一个愿景。这必须是您在任何场合都清晰有力地表达的愿景。 You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.”—Reverend Theodore Hesburgh

伟大的领导者知道，只有清晰的愿景是不够的。你必须让这个愿景变得生动起来，这样你的追随者才能像你一样清楚地看到它。伟大的领导者通过讲故事和画口头图片来做到这一点，这样每个人不仅可以了解他们要去的地方，还可以了解他们到达那里时的外观和感觉。这激发了其他人将愿景内在化并使之成为自己的愿景。

9.真实性

“Just be who you are and speak from your guts and heart--it’s all a man has.”—Hubert Humphrey

Authenticity refers to being honest in all things --not just what you say and do, but who you are. 当您是真实的时，您的言行与您声称的身份保持一致。如果你有别有用心，你的追随者不应该被迫花时间试图退出。他们花任何时间这样做都会削弱他们对您和执行能力的信心。

地道的领导人是透明的，是当之无愧的。他们并不完美，但他们通过说话赢得了人们的尊重。

10.平易近性

“管理就像手里拿着一只鸽子。 Squeeze too hard and you kill it, not hard enough and it flies away.”—Tommy Lasorda

Great leaders make it clear that they welcome challenges, criticism, and viewpoints other than their own. They know that an environment where people are afraid to speak up, offer insight, and ask good questions is destined for failure. 通过确保他们平易近人，伟大的领导人促进了伟大思想在整个组织中的流动。

11.问责制

“古罗马人有一个传统: 每当他们的一位工程师建造拱门时，当顶石被吊起到位时，工程师就会以最深刻的方式承担责任: He stood under the arch.”—Michael Armstrong

伟大的领导者有追随者的支持。他们不会试图推卸责任，也不会在失败时避免羞耻。他们从不害怕说 “责任就在这里”，他们通过支持他们赢得了人们的信任。

12. Sense Of purpose

“你不能通过指指点点告诉人们应该去的地方来领导。 You lead by going to that place and making a case.”—Ken Kesey

视觉是你要去哪里的清晰概念，而目标感是指对你为什么要去那里的理解。人们喜欢觉得自己是比自己更大的事物的一部分。伟大的领导者给人这种感觉。

把这一切结合在一起

成为一名优秀的领导者并不意味着你必须同时融入所有这些特征。一次专注于一两个; 每次增量改进都会使您更加有效。 It’s okay if you “act“ some of these qualities at first. The more you practice, the more instinctive it will become, and the more you’ll internalize your new leadership style.

本文的一个版本首次出现在taleentsmart.com上。