5 Simple Qualities You Can Develop To Be A Better Leader.

I was reading an article recently about great leadership qualities, and while the list was very good and had many qualities that you would expect. Such as Authenticity, Accountability, Nurturing, Great communicator, Humility, Right emotional intelligence, Empathy, Motivating, Inspiring, etc., these were some key qualities I thought were missing. Here are five qualities which have helped take my leadership to that next level and can do same for yours as well.

Optimism
Having the ability to see challenges as opportunities, being able to create a positive atmosphere, having confidence in the ability of yourself and your team and followers are great morale boosters.
The thing is that, If you don't believe in yourself or your team, its hard to hide this attitude, and it can become a self-fulling prophecy of leadership failure.
People tend to meet our expectations of them, so why not have positive expectations, be optimistic about the outcome and let them know, Let this become a touch you hold in leadership always as you progress.

Pragmatism
It's great to set big bold goals, and have grand visions, but you have to have a realistic plan and strategy to achieve it. Otherwise, you are just setting yourself, and your team, up for failure. Pragmatism allows you to evaluate approaches and reject those that won't work, or are too ambitious. It will help you break down big bold goals into small achievable goals that help build confidence and momentum as you walk your talk in leadership.

Openness
Some of the worst leaders I have seen, worked with and known over the years have been closed.
They are closed to other cultures, closed to new ideas, ideas and innovations that are not their own.
A closed attitude can be limting, not only to the results that can be achieved but also to the opportunities that become available. 
Being open doesn't mean you have to accept everything, it just means you're prepared to listen, learn and are open to trying new things. You still have the opportunity to reject those things that you don't think will work, but you're doing that from an informed perspective rather than from preconceived prejudices.

Flexibility
The road to success is full of twists and turns, ups and downs, and not every path you take will be the right one. I am a strong believer that you need to be firm about the goals you set, but flexible in your approach to achieving them is key component which will help you recalibrate such goal and plans as events continue to unfold around such pursuit and goals.
Therefore, knowing when to change track is a great skill to have because persisting with an approach that doesn't work just becomes frustrating and demoralizing to your team and followers.

Sense of humor
One quality of a good leader is a good sense of humor.
A leader should be able to laugh at himself every ones in awhile.
Humor is a great stress reliever, and when used well can really help to defuse tension especially in difficult situations.
Good humor can also help to bring a sense of fun to the workplace, and it helps put people at ease.

What I like best about these qualities is that you can improve each of them with just a little bit of practice. The return on that investment in your leadership can have significant benefits, both in terms of results generated, your reputation as a leader and peoples desire to both hire, work with and follow you as there leader can not be over emphasized.

Written by: Raymond Aisabor.