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Traits, Traits, Who's Got The Traits


The Baseline Traits 


When I think of the traits, I see from the leaders I look up to in my organization, I find it interesting to compare my level of expertise to theirs. I’m naturally a competitive person and like to baseline myself or my skills against other people. Sometimes, that can be a downfall of mine where I should be using the comparison to boost my own potential, rather than looking at how far advanced others are with these traits. Stepping back from the ledge a bit and putting my critical thinking hat on, I see that my confidence is one my strongest strengths. I understand that to be an effective leader, you must have confidence, but too much of it will turn off those around you. An overabundance of confidence can be misconstrued as arrogance or cockiness and end up being more of a detractor than an enhancer. I have had to watch myself in that I don’t push people with this strength, because it can quickly turn against me.

Another trait that I see enhancing my leadership abilities is being a great communicator. I feel that my communication skills, both verbal and written are certainly great strengths of mine. I am comfortable speaking in front of large groups and writing for my senior leaders. But just like confidence, using the wrong words can ultimately be detrimental to my success. Communicating the proper message takes thought, patience and knowledge. These are some of the building blocks to ensure my communication is targeted at the proper audience and the message is delivered in a receptive way.

Lastly, a trait that I know is a detractor for me is my lack of empathy. Perhaps, it is because I’ve been burned too many times that I’ve put up a wall around me to prevent more sympathetic leadership styles from entering my wheelhouse. Truth be told, I like having a closer relationship with my co-workers and subordinates. I’ve succumbed to situations where my empathy was used against me in very negative ways. However, this doesn’t prevent me from trying to understand someone’s pain from a distance. I still make attempts to break through my own self-imposed wall, let my guard down and be more empathetic with people.

Styles, Actions & Traits

As I’ve said before, I believe my leadership style fluctuates between Laissez-Faire and Transformational. I believe this to be true because I feel that being flexible, rather than being rigid, plays to my strengths and allows me to adjust my delivery depending on the situation or the audience. With Transformational Leadership, I get the reward of helping prepare someone for future battles by getting them to see how to build their own approach and explore and sharpen their tools. I enjoy being able to bring out the best in people and through this Transformational leadership style, I get to see that firsthand, which is reward for me to see this come full circle.

I believe my strengths of confidence and communication fit into these two leadership styles. To be a leader using Laissez-Faire leadership, you must have the confidence to be cool, calm and collected. If you're too laid back, you'll be a push-over. If you're too aggressive, then in my opinion, you're not really in that leadership category. To be a leader using Transformational leadership, you must have passion, energy and drive to show your team the vision you have and to get them to believe in it. Again, if you're overly confident, then you could come across like a know-it-all and turn people off. If you lack confidence, you will probably sound like you don't have a clue what you're talking about. Underneath both styles is communication. Whether or not you use Strategic Leadership, Autocratic Leadership or any of the other recognizable styles, if you don't have the ability to be an effective communicator, nothing is going to work. Even for someone like me that needs to improve and leverage empathy, if I can't communicate my feelings, the relevance of traits to my actions won't mean anything to those around me. 

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