5 Essential Leadership Qualities
As a business owner, your job is to meet the needs of your customers, investors, employees, and members of the community. In order to successfully make this happen, a business needs effective leadership. Simply being the owner is not enough to build a sustainable business; you must learn how to direct your passion and energy by understanding the necessary skills of being an effective leader.
During my internship, I had the privilege of meeting one of today’s most effective leaders- Fastsigns CEO, Catherine Monson. Below, I have listed 5 essential practices and skills Catherine Monson feels every leader should have.
1. PMA- Positive Mental Attitude
Attitude determines altitude. You should always try to remain positive because you become what you think about. Additionally, people with a positive mindset make great leaders because their positivity helps build others rather than tear them down.
2. GDB- Goal-Directed Behavior
One of the most important and life-changing practices I adopted this summer is to write my goals down. The effect this has is that it allows you to envision your goals by breaking them down into feasible steps.
3. SM- Self Motivation
Self-motivation keeps you from depending on others and allows you to achieve success based on your own goals and objectives. Additionally, you cannot motivate others if you, yourself are not already motivated.
4. SOU- Sense of Urgency
Remember that attitudes are contagious, therefore you should have short daily production meetings with every team to ensure progress.
5. NSL- Never Stop Learning
The final recommendation Catherine Monson has is to seek mentors, stay current on all new technology and policies, and to never stop reading. No matter how successful you are, never assume that you know everything there is to know because that’s how you get left behind.