20 Abilities That a Leader Must Possess

The ability to roll with the punches. The skill for being a leader is to make constant compromises by sticking to his (her) basic principle. A leader can never adopt the method of diamond cut diamond when meeting any problem, no matter it is the criticism from leaders of upper level or pressure from various circles of society, or even the test of life and death. The best way to deal with it is to roll with the punches or adopt the carrot-and-stick policy to avoid the escalation of the issue.

1. There are big leaders and small leaders around us, and all big leaders stem from small ones steeled over and over again. But, not all people who are small leaders have the ability to suit a higher position. To become a leader, ability is more important than natural gift. You should possess the following basic qualities if you want to become a competent leader:

2. The idea that people come first. Learn to be mature before undertaking a cause. It is achieved by people no matter how brilliant the undertaking is. So, it is the essential condition that an outstanding leader must possess to emphasize the factor of people. A good leader will respect every member in the team, pay close attention to their demands in work and life, and create a good external environment for them to realize their goals.

3. Organizing and coordinating ability. Everyone has his (her) own strong points and weak points, so there is division of work, cooperation and coordination. A leader should learn how to organize and how to coordinate, and it is the essential element a leader must have in order to solidify his (her) team and realize the goal in work. 

4. The ability to control the overall situation. Whether you are able to be a leader or how big a leader you can become is usually reflected from the fact whether you have the ability to control the overall situation. That is to say, if you are unable to control even the overall situation of an administrative department, naturally you don't possess the basic qualities to be a good leader.

5. The ability to make democratic decisions. Absolute power will cause absolute corruption, the ability to make democratic decisions is far more important than the consciousness to make democratic decisions.

6. Powerful executing strength. Even if there is good scientific decision, the key still lies in how to implement it. A good leader will turn the objective of the company into his (her) own objective, divide it into tangible goals for all people in the team, and encourage every member in the team to work hard persistently for these goals.

7. Open thought and mentality. A leader should persistently absorb all kinds of advanced cultures and learn from all advanced experiences of craft brothers and all other people or draw lessons from their failures; before making decisions or issuing orders, a leader should first listen to other people's opinions and suggestions with an open and tolerant mentality to admit mavericks. 

8. The idea for persistent innovation. Innovation is the soul of an enterprise, and it is a taboo for the development of an enterprise to stick to the established practice. So, awareness of innovation is the essential quality a successful leader must possess. 

9. The inner heart must be strong enough. A leader must bear the pressure and grievance that other people can't bear with a sufficiently strong inner heart; he (she) will have the tolerance for things he (she) can't change, have the perseverance to change those he (she) can change, have the ability to find the lurking opportunities, have the wisdom to distinguish and catch the transient chance, have the courage to admit and face the wrong thing he (she) did, and have the guts to accept the sharp criticism from the subordinate, and moreover, be able to turn it into the motive force of self-perfection. 

10. The ability to market himself (herself) through public relations. A leader must know and be able to make use of various propaganda media and tools ingeniously to market his (her) own business and should also understand how to make use of the media to dissolve unexpected public crisis.

11. Relatively fair policies. Unfair incentive mechanism and unfair treatment are one of the main factors causing subordinates to change their jobs one after another; and a good leader should be good at finding out the problem existing in the incentive mechanism of his (her) organization, and revise and perfect the welfare and incentive policy much more in the interests of most people, forming a relatively fair working environment. 

12. Concurrently gentle and stern measure. A superb competitive and cohesive team would most likely have a complete management system and incentive mechanism fair in meting out rewards or punishments; and a good leader will set an example to take the lead to obey every rules and regulations strictly, and meanwhile, he (she) should be skilled in applying all kinds of incentive and punishing policies so as to be fair in meting out rewards or punishments. 

13. The awareness of abiding by the disciplines and laws. For an organization, the most taboo thing is that the leader takes the lead in violating the rules and regulations or placing himself (herself) above all kinds of rules and regulations; and an outstanding leader is sure to take the lead in setting an example by abiding by the rules and regulations consciously and is a person with superb self-controlling ability and practicing what he (she) preaches by abiding by the disciplines and laws. 

14. A mind to be lenient with others. Don't chide your subordinates with arrogant and overbearing tone, you should know that even if the leader is extremely smart and great, it is useless to depend on a single person.

15. The idea of taking the interests of the whole into account. The interests of a small group are no doubt important, but when the collective interests conflict with the interests of a group, you can judge whether a person has the quality for being a leader or how big a leader he (she) can become. If a person is broad-minded and has the overall situation in mind, he (she) can never be confined by the interests of a small group. If a person only focuses on the interests of a small group and ignores the collective interests, he (she) is unable to become a bigger leader.

16. The habit to learn. A leader should think deeper and more thoroughly than his (her) subordinates. Therefore, it is very important to form the good habit of being good at learning and persistently learning. Only in this way, can you avoid major fault in your decision. 

17. The initiative to conduct effective communication. An excellent leader can make his (her) subordinates feel cordial and friendly, agreeable and vigorous. The absolute majority of the subordinates dislike a leader who easily loses temper and cannot find the good points of the subordinate all the time.

18. The idea of exercising power for the people. A good leader will always put the collective interests before individual interests, and put other people's interests before his (her) own interests. 

19. The self-discipline for being honest in performing one's official duties. No matter how big a leader is, he (she) will go to prison sooner or later if he (she) is unable to be honest in performing his (her) official duties. As a leader, he (she) has more opportunities to deal with money and important wealth than others. It is very important to discipline others, but it is even more important to discipline himself (herself). 

20. The objective to shoulder social responsibilities. Some people would find that their abilities are really insufficient to make a leader when they become leaders at first, but they really want to make a good leader. Then, you can start with setting up social responsibilities, and then try to learn while working and listen to the advice of colleagues with more professional knowledge than you in an open mind; you can offer to undertake a task which others are not very willing to do or lead the team to realize an established objective in work together, letting everybody understand the specific social responsibility that you shoulder. 

Actually, it is not a complicated thing to be a leader, and the key lies in the fact that whether you really put "people first" in your heart, and whether you respect others in the way you get along with others. As for the management, you needn't worry about it. You can learn a lot of management skills in the daily life and work. It is unnecessary for you to require yourself to possess all skills and characteristics of a good leader, but you must require yourself to have the resolve and will to try to be a good leader.