20 Questions for Leaders 13/20 Leadership Characteristics

From Questions for Leaders:

What is one characteristic that you believe every leader should possess?

There are many characteristics that leaders should possess: honesty; integrity; vision; drive, energy; charisma; the list of desirable traits is long.

Integrity is very important, this is what allows a leader to build trust, and we all know how important trust is in a relationship.

However, if I had to pick the most important characteristic, I would say that humility is number 1.

Humility is the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one’s own importance, rank, etc.

In ‘Good to Great’ Jim Collins highlights humility as one of the key characteristics which differentiates Level 5 leaders from the rest. With Level 5 being the highest level of Leadership.

I think three great examples of leaders with Humility are Gandhi, Martin Luther King jr, and Nelson Mandela.

What do you think is the most important leadership quality?