What are the most important QUALITIES AND SKILLS OF A LEADER

Here are some of the QUALITIES AND SKILLS OF A LEADER while leading people.

• Being a visionary (e.g., help to describe the products, goals, and objectives of the project; able to dream and translate those dreams for others);
• Being optimistic and positive;
• Being collaborative;
• Managing relationships and conflict by:
  • Building trust;
  • Satisfying concerns;
  • Seeking consensus;
  • Balancing competing and opposing goals;
  • Applying persuasion, negotiation, compromise, and conflict resolution skills;
  • Developing and nurturing personal and professional networks;
  • Taking a long-term view that relationships are just as important as the project; and
  • Continuously developing and applying political acumen.

• Communicating by:
  • Spending sufficient time communicating (research shows that top project managers spend about 90% of their time on a project in communicating);
  • Managing expectations;
  • Accepting feedback graciously;
  • Giving feedback constructively; and
  • Asking and listening.
  • Being respectful (helping others retain their autonomy), courteous, friendly, kind, honest, trustworthy, loyal, and ethical;
  • Exhibiting integrity and being culturally sensitive, courageous, a problem solver, and decisive;
  • Giving credit to others where due;
  • Being a life-long learner who is results- and action-oriented

• Focusing on the important things, including:
  • Continuously prioritizing work by reviewing and adjusting as necessary;
  • Finding and using a prioritization method that works for them and the project;
  • Differentiating high-level strategic priorities, especially those related to critical success factors for the project;
  • Maintaining vigilance on primary project constraints;
  • Remaining flexible on tactical priorities; and
  • Being able to sift through massive amounts of information to obtain the most important information.
    
• Having a holistic and systemic view of the project, taking into account internal and external factors equally;
• Being able to apply critical thinking (e.g., application of analytical methods to reach decisions) and identify him or herself as a change agent.
• Being able to build effective teams, be service-oriented, and have fun and share humor effectively with team members.