The Top 10 Traits of Leaders

Top Ten TraitsToo often Leadership Development Programs are a process of turning out exact replicas of a certain personality type. Commanding, egocentric and persuasive leaders have, in the past, been seen as ideal.

After the corporate scandals of the last two decades, where some of these larger-than-life personalities were at the very root of the problem, one would think we’d be over our infatuation with charismatic leaders.

Of course there are common qualities that great leaders possess; courage, integrity, tenacity, just to name a few. But these traits can come in many different forms. One could argue that the leadership styles of Mahatma Ghandi, Lee Iaccoca and Colin Powell are vastly different while there are some traits they all had in common.

The question is can these traits be developed? Is something as intangible as integrity teachable? Or is it an innate quality that you either have or you don’t? While the actual quality of integrity may be difficult to measure, the behaviors that exhibit integrity are easily recognized.

This series contains ten essential qualities of great leaders. Then, there are a few suggestions on how to develop these qualities in yourself or in others after each trait.

To turn this into a more interactive feedback exercise for you or your leaders, we have a few options we recommend.

If you’d like to know about those now, just contact us and we’ll send you those options right away. (The first two are completely free!)

~ Nancy Roberts
The DISC Wizard