7 MORE Traits of Potential Leaders (Part 2)

By Matt Monge

Like we talked about yesterday, this list of traits isn’t meant to be an exhaustive one. It’s not meant to imply that all leaders will have every one of these. Here’s the rest of the list.

1. They offer different thoughts and ideas and are willing to advocate for those in which they believe strongly.

They’re not the type to sit in meetings day after day, nodding and smiling at everything. If they hear something that’s off, or they think of something that’s going to make the team even better, they’re going to bring it up. Again, they’ll be using that workplace savvy, so it’s unlikely they’re going to come off like that jackass who feels like he always has a better idea than everyone else in the room. Nobody likes that guy. Even that guy doesn’t like that guy, but that’s a psychology tangent for another day.

2. Their attitude doesn’t tend to make you want to karate chop them in the earlobe.

They tend to have really good attitudes. I’m not saying they’re all Stepford employees or something, but employees with great attitudes tend to viewed in a more positive light by their teammates; and let’s face it–with all else being equal, given the choice between being led by someone who’s just an all-around nice human being and being led by someone whose attitude tends to make you want to karate chop them in the earlobe, we’d all likely choose the former over the latter.

3. They get antsy.

They’re restless in a good way. Even when they’re sitting still, their minds are probably going. They think about how this or that could be better and what they could do to help it get there. They envision what things could be and what it would take make those things a reality.

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