People always want to know the key qualities of being a great leader. While lists of various traits can easily become overwhelming, we advise you to focus on the three “C”s: curiosity, compassion, and courage.
Curiosity
Leading with curiosity speaks to your ability to be a continuous leader; if you are curious, your work environment will never become stagnant. Curious leaders take the time to think about how their company functions, how people work, what’s moving the business world, how their clients operate, and how all of these different entities think. More than being curious in their insight, they take the time to turn that around and self reflect: how do I think? This curiosity keeps them aware of the needs of everyone around them and on the cutting edge of trends and changes in their specific industry.
Compassion
Compassion in the workplace comes in the form of being generous of heart. As a leader, you are likely driven by a passion, or for a cause– something that motivates you. This may drive you, and determine how you lead, hopefully in a way that creates a similar drive in your employees. Beyond that, try to see the best in people; care about your employees in terms of how they feel about their work, and take care to make time to develop them into a team you can count on and one that will contribute to the success of your company.
Courage
The last “C”, courage, is important in maintaining the utmost quality within your company. When it comes to looking at the hard facts of what’s going on in the company, especially if something negative has occurred, it is important to be courageous in both your self-examination and in taking inventory. You must remove any ounce of protection for yourself or anyone else, and view the situation without any bias or judgement. It is this courage that will help you make the best decisions for the company, and truly learn from any errors or mistakes that have potentially been made. This can be difficult, and perhaps scary, but courage is not the lack of fear, but acting despite it. As a leader, you can be also be courageous in a more typical sense of the word: taking risks, granted, calculated risks. Calculated risks are important in making positive change and progress for your company.
Not all of the three “C”s come easily to everyone, they are not necessarily innate traits you may have inherited. Do not let that discourage you, all the three “C”’s can be learned. Stick with it and be mindful of your behaviors, and your leadership will become even better.