Successful Leadership Style

Traits of a Successful Leadership Style are as follows:

Choose to lead.
Be the person others choose to follow.
Provide vision for the future.
Provide inspiration and make other people feel important and appreciated.
Live your values. Behave ethically.
Set the pace through your expectations and example.
Establish an environment of continuous improvement.
Provide opportunities for people to grow, both personally and professionally.
Care and act with compassion.


You should follow these simple rules to be a inspirational and successful leader:

The inspirational leader feels passionately about the vision and mission of the organization. He or she is also able to share that passion in a way that enables others to feel passionate, too. The nature of the vision and mission is critical for enabling others to feel as if their work has purpose and meaning beyond the tasks they perform each day. Sometimes leaders have to help their staff connect the dots by explaining this big picture to all. Communicating the big picture regularly will help reinforce the reason your organization exists.

The inspirational leader listens to the people in her organization. Talking to people about your passion is not enough.You must allow the ideas and thoughts of your staff to help form the vision and mission, or minimally, the goals and action plan. No one is ever one hundred percent supportive of a direction they had no part in formulating. People need to see their ideas incorporated – or understand why they were not.

To experience inspiration, people also need to feel included. Inclusion goes beyond the listening and feedback; for real inclusion, people need to feel intimately connected to the actions and process that are leading to the accomplishment of the goals or the decision.

At a client company, we cancelled an annual employee event because of customer orders for product. Many people did not like the decision, but we involved the whole management group, the Activity Committee members and many other employees in the discussion about whether to cancel or re-schedule the event. The inclusion led to a compromise that, while not perfect, still enables a celebration and a positive motivation boost, yet allows the company to meet customer needs.

Important to inspiration is the integrity of the person leading. Yes, vision and passion are important, but employees must trust you to feel inspired. They must believe in you. Your “person” is as important as the direction you provide. Employees look up to a person who tells the truth, tries to do the right things, lives a "good" life and does their best. Trust me. Your actions play out on the stage of your organization. And, your staff does boo and cheer and vote with their feet and their actions.

Finally, an inspirational leader gives people what they want within his capabilities.  The inspirational leader also understands that, while money is a motivator, so are praise, recognition, rewards, a thank you and noticing an individual’s contribution to a successful endeavor.