5 Leadership Characteristics Your Team Will Love

He gained my respect through his imperfection.

Honestly, his worry didn’t bother me. He didn’t fail by requesting prayer. He didn’t show weakness or lose leverage against others. He gained respect. He gained lots of prayer. He showed his humanity, his authenticity.

These thoughts circled in my head after reading an email I referenced in a blog post on worry yesterday. My friend sent an email requesting prayer from various business associates.

Many people in our world would advise him against doing this. They would advise him not to show vulnerability. They would advise him to “hold his cards.” They would advise him to not give other people leverage.

They would all be wrong, inauthentic, superficial, and lacking in character. This friend displayed 5 Leadership Characteristics Your Team Will Love:

leadership characteristics

5 Leadership Characteristics Your Team Will Love:

1) Authenticity

Leaders today, if nothing else, must lead authentically. I’ve experienced various generations and cultures that do not embrace authenticity. But the millennial generation (and arguably all others as well) demands authenticity for leaders to be themselves.

Leaders today, if nothing else, must lead authentically. Click To Tweet

Don’t hide your prayer requests. Share them even when you are afraid. You can take this too far but most organizational leaders in the church and corporate America struggle here.

Don't hide your prayer requests. Share them. Click To Tweet

2) Weakness

Leaders need to be strong. Right? Yes and no.

The best leaders get their strength not from winning or from perfection but from weakness. How a leader responds when winning says far less than how he responds when he loses.

Be weak. Be you. Be honest. Be who you are. Click To Tweet

3) Teachability

The degree to which you remain teachable will dictate your ability to progress in your career. My business associate who requested prayer didn’t give me useful data so that I could hurt him. He motivated me to serve, support, and encourage him.

When you show teachability those around you share ideas, information, and opportunities. Turn on the firehose and start learning from others.

When you show teachability those around you share ideas. Click To Tweet

4) Need for Others

Leaders need others in order to succeed. They especially have to believe in others.

Leaders need others in order to succeed. Click To Tweet

The friend I mentioned here could have easily decided he didn’t need us. He could have “sucked it up” and “taken care of business” by himself. Instead he weakened himself by admitting he had needs…right? WRONG!

He showed strength as a leader by asking for help, by showing he needed others, by showing he couldn’t do it alone. He mobilized an army when he admitted his inability.

5) Gifted Leverage

He could have withheld his leverage, made sure nobody knew his concerns, and guarded himself each step of the way. Instead, he chose to gift his leverage.

His gifted leverage made him stronger as a leader. His gifted leverage mobilized others around him to use his gifted leverage for his benefit.

His gifted leverage truly was never “his” to begin with anyway. It was gifted to him to gift to others. When he gifted it to others, they gifted it back to him.

Which leadership characteristic is most needed in your industry? How have you seen these characteristics played out?

Share below and let us know.