All good teams are comprised of both leaders and those who make their mark by being “doers.” Both are equally important and welcomed. We all know a top-heavy organization isn’t sustainable, and having a good mix of personalities makes us much stronger. It takes us all.
With this caveat, good leadership is absolutely essential to an organization. As we are training our next generation, how do we identify the team members who have the traits to step into this role?
I recently read an article answering a simple question: Should you be a leader? They bring up 10 excellent qualifications including technical expertise, curiosity, integrity, humility and self-control. Rarely do I see all these traits in any one person. To me, the most important traits for anyone are people skills, being coachable and having ambition. I can’t put a value on being able to work with different personalities and the ability to build relationships among the team. The best folks at our company are willing to accept constructive feedback and are driven to always take care of our customer relationships, the foundation on which our company was built.
