6 Key Traits of Leadership
by David Goldsmith

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Business leaders throughout the ages have looked for the magic key to defining, finding and working with leaders. Courses are taught to create awareness about leadership. We have high school programs, to infuse leadership early in a student’s development. We created leadership studies in college hoping that by studying leaders we will once again create the ultimate leader. Today you cannot find a Fortune 500 corporation that does not spend a fortune to find the key to creating great leaders. In essence, we find that most of the quandary over leadership is can it be taught. Can we make people better leaders or just better at executing the new advancement of the day? Authors, in turn, spend countless hours trying to find the next buzzword to replace famous well-known characters and get on the speaking circuit.

A friend, Ian Chisolm, took it upon himself to a simple equation for what leaders do to enhance their position and to get others to follow. The objective was to question leaders of our time to find out what dominant traits exist in people who have made the transition. In most cases you will find that leadership is a "personality type" that can be nurtured. Sometimes, an awareness of the 6 traits of leadership will enhance one’s ability to overcome or develop parts of their being that will make them more successful in a leadership role.

On a trip to North Carolina to speak on leadership, the 6 traits kept on rolling around in my head. Could anyone define any given leader by their innate ability to capture a high degree of all 6? The answer was yes. Leaders can be defined by 6 basic characteristics: Awareness, Focus, Creativity, Integrity, Self-discipline, and Perseverance. Each can be enhanced by practice and education. But most importantly the 6 must be prominent in the personality and everyday living.

1. Awareness: Leaders are aware of the human influence. They are aware of their surroundings and quite capable of reacting to situations that arise. Being "connected" allows the leader to be reactive and proactive.

2. Focus: Leaders are able to focus on their project at hand. This focus is utilized to manage a group of people or to move people into combat. In each situation, energies are channeled into a desired result. (How they perform these feats is another issue.)

3. Creativity: Leaders are able to move time, resources, energy and ideas in methods others thought impossible or implausible. In any case, the ability to create opportunity distinguishes their methods from following the crowd.

4. Integrity: Leaders have a "community" sense of right and wrong. Each culture and environment has a set of standards in which they believe. The leader not only mirrors their followers, in many cases the leader enhances a particular trait to a higher degree.

5. Self-discipline: Leaders have the one true trait that makes them start a project, task or idea. How many people have said that they’ve had "that" idea years ago, only to be purchasing another’s invention? Self-discipline requires the maturity to do what is needed, not always what is desired in the present moment.

6. Perseverance: Leaders have follow through. They are the people who, without fail, should be counted on to complete a project. They have to set a schedule and complete whatever comes along (even when facing obstacles.)

These 6 traits haven’t changed in thousands of years. We’re now looking for leaders to fill certain shoes and are having trouble finding them. By knowing the traits of leaders, you may be able to "build" these tools into your life for future personal success.

We need to redefine what we are looking for in order to find it.