5 Factors of Great Leadership

Leaders can be spotted every day and are often all around us.  Having strong leadership skills is one of the things that nearly every employer looks for in an employee.  It is also something that venture capitalists pick up on very quickly.  The following are the 5 main factors that go into being a great leader.  

1. Confidence is one of the most important qualities to have as a young business person in general.  Note the difference between confidence and cockiness.  Confidence means you have the skill set to back it up. Master certain aspects of business/life and be fully confident in your skills.  Nobody wants to follow a leader who is unsure of their decisions or abilities.
2. Humility is almost as important as confidence.  As a leader it is often crucial for the success of the team to be humble and accept that some team members will be better suited for certain tasks.  As an entrepreneur it is often difficult to put the weight of the team's success on someone other than yourself, but it's always better to use a CS PhD to develop the program than try to teach yourself and fail.
3. Trust can sometimes be an issue due to critical information being shared among the team.  Although it can be tough to trust new team members to follow through on deadlines it is important to put as much trust as possible in those around you.  Displaying your trust for your team members is one of the easiest ways to earn their respect.  Nobody wants to work for someone who always guards information or someone who doesn't trust that you know what you're doing.
4. Communication is crucial in anything that you do, but leaders must be excellent communicators.  Leaders are often responsible to communicate ideas to different types of people.  You may be given a deadline or task to communicate to your team, you may be communicating your needs to a B2B company halfway across the world, or you may be communicating your startup pitch to an executive on an elevator.  In any matter, delivery is the key.  It is important to find a healthy balance between the amount of information and the length of time that it takes to communicate the information.  While working with another company it may be a good idea to spend 30 minutes writing a detailed message so that there are no errors or misinterpretations.  While pitching your idea in an elevator stick to the opportunity for the executive and be sure the first sentence out of your mouth has an introduction, why your startup would benefit them, and a way for them to contact you (preferably a business card).
5. Knowledge is the final factor of great leadership.  You can have confidence, humility, trust, and be an expert communicator, but if you don't have the knowledge to lead your team in the right direction then what's the point?  Leaders must often evaluate a situation and find the most efficient way to solve the problem in a matter of minutes.  Knowledge is a great foundation for problem solving.  Entrepreneurs are often wired to think outside of the box, so this will come naturally for most entrepreneurs.  

Take a look around during this next week.  Look at the leaders in your life.  Evaluate how effectively they lead.  See what areas they need work in.  Chances are that those areas are related to the 5 factors of great leadership listed above.

Keep reading, following, liking, and plussing.  

BPL

P.S. Atl Young Entrepreneurs meetup coming in August!  Spread the word.  Working out the details in the next 2 weeks.