What are Good Leadership Qualities?

Good Leadership Qualities means serving others.

During the holiday season, between eating too much turkey and getting upset with the results of my football picks, I happened to pick up a copy of SUCCESS magazine and came across an excellent article series on good leadership qualities.

The first part of a series focused on the various levels of leadership by John Maxwell. It got me thinking about one of my friends and his father’s impact on people. You see, his father recently passed away and I was touched by the overall sentiment of all the well wishers attending the funeral.

In reviewing his father’s life, everyone had kind words and described his life as always being of service. This resonated with me because leaders always add value by serving others. Based on the emotional expressions of the occasion, my friend’s father had demonstrated effective leadership skills in serving many throughout his life.

In following the teaching and training of Maxwell, serving and delivering value is commonplace for leaders and effective leadership skills.  In Maxwell’s book, “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”, the law of addition proclaims that leaders add value by serving others. In other words, good leadership qualities are viewed as a form of service as opposed to a position, privilege, or power as many often believe. Think about all of the leaders, past and present (also…good and bad :-)), in your life. How do they measure up in terms of adding value by serving others?

As we all know, some of the best leaders are those who are great listeners, intuitive, influential and empowering to their teams. My view is if you spent any time with a great leader you learned several traits and characteristics that will stay with you forever.

In reading the magazine article it had me pondering leadership and how to be better at it. Are we born with leadership skills and ability or is it a learned and acquired skill? Also, it had me sold on getting the next month’s edition to continue following the series.  Go pick up your own copy of the magazine and let me know what you think of the series. Oh and remember to ask yourself this question… Who’s life can I add value to? Or said differently, how can I be of service today?

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