Empathy

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Empathy plays an important role in leadership. Not only can demonstrating empathy with others build relationships and a sense of trust, it can also help a leader understand another point of view or other set of circumstances to effectively inform decisions and actions.

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Other Perspectives

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Leaders do not have all the answers. Thus, it is essential that they are able to truly consider other opinions, experiences, and outlooks to help them develop better solutions and approaches when dealing with leadership situations. Not only can this lead to better outcomes, but considering other perspectives helps leaders relate to and appreciate others more by better understanding their viewpoints.

 

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Follow-Through

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People need to be able to depend on and trust each other to follow through on their commitments even when facing obstacles. An individual persisting through challenge to see something through to the end not only allows for a task to be accomplished, but demonstrates that the individual can be relied upon and trusted to carry out commitments. 

 

Responsibility for Personal Behavior

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All people make mistakes and bad choices on occasion. It is how one handles those situations that demonstrates leadership. Leaders do not defer responsibility, push blame on others, or cover up errors. They own up to their actions by admitting when they are wrong, apologizing, rectifying the situation, and accepting the consequences for their actions. Doing this demonstrates a leader’s honesty, integrity, and allows the leader to move forward in taking corrective action and learn from the experience so as not to make a mistake or bad choice in this circumstance in the future.

 

Inclusion

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Leaders do not just lead an abstract group of people for an abstract cause; they lead with people and for people. Since people like to feel included, whether that is to share their viewpoints, contribute to a cause or task, or simply feel a sense of belonging, leaders must foster an inclusive environment.

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