7 characteristics that separate great leaders from average ones

Whether you’re trying to climb the proverbial career ladder or digging your feet in as an entrepreneur with high hopes and big visions, solid leadership skills are a must. The problem, unfortunately, is that most people get swallowed up in the transition from employee to leader. What do you need to know about great leadership to prevent this from happening to you? 

Dr. Alok Trivedi is a psychological performance expert who works with Fortune 500 executives as well as budding entrepreneurs of companies experiencing significant growth. He is also the author of the book Chasing Success and the founder of the Aligned Performance Institute.    

Dr. Trivedi says all great leaders do these 7 things: 

• Great leaders are aligned to themselves.  In other words, they are true and authentic to who they are and don’t lead based on other people’s expectations. They are open to feedback, hearing what their employees have to say and making changes for the good of the team, but they don’t live in constant fear of what people think of them. 

• Great leaders expect and embrace the challenges that come before them. They know success is a road filled with obstacles and they are prepared to take them on.  They know overcoming these challenges is going to help them and their employees grow both personally and professionally.

• Great leaders spend more time focusing on the vision, mission and planning then in the act of doing.  They leave the doing to their employees and are there to guide the ship and set the direction.

• Great leaders know it takes both logic and emotions to be successful.  They operate from logic while inspiring their team through emotion. Both logic and emotion have their place in leadership. The key is knowing when to use which.

• A great leader inspires instead of motivates.  When a leader inspires, it activates the employee to want to perform.  When you motivate, you make the employee think he has to perform.

• A great leader doesn’t operate from fear. He has an authentic and aligned leadership style that’s not afraid to perform. There’s no such thing as failure because he believes failure is needed to learn and grow.

• A great leader is going to extrapolate and align the values of her employees to match the vision and leadership of the company. She quickly realizes the potential of a person and inspires them to perform in that capacity while also meeting the objectives and goals of the company.