As the world becomes more conscious and aware, what sort of leader do we need, to take advantage of this awareness and lead our businesses, homes and organisations to an abundant future?
I believe there are 5 traits of a leader in 2024 that are essential to their business and personal success.
Self Awareness
A leader in 2024 knows themselves. They are aware of how they show up, why they show up and their effect on others. I have found that over the years, the better the self-awareness of the leader, the better the culture of the business. If a leader genuinely knows who they are, they can provide the most value to their business by understanding what they are good at and more importantly, what they are not good at.
A self-aware leader is generally more aware of other’s traits and what they are good at too, and these leaders are normally okay with honest conversations around themselves and expecting that same transparency from others too.
Let’s say for example that the leader knows that she is extremely detail-oriented, then she makes that awareness of herself available to her staff. She tells them that she requires details because that’s how she learns, so come prepared to meetings. On the other hand, if someone like me, who detests detail and generally just needs to know the very basics, then I should make that information available so that when someone is coming to tell me how the meeting went, people know to begin with telling me the end.
This approach then teaches others to develop an understanding of their own learning style or listening style so they too can follow and lead better. Following is as important as leading. I never promote anyone to leadership unless I have seen them successfully support and follow a leader without thinking of their own success.
Humility
No competitive spirit here. Humility is about serving. You can pick a humble person because they generally don’t talk about themselves unless the story is going to encourage or help someone else. They do not need to self-promote or impress you because do not thrive on attention or opinions of others. They have done their work and can just sit in the space of each conversation and genuinely be available for the other person. They are already full. This is what makes them humble.
You will find with humble leaders that their life is about giving. They give and give with their time, their words, their money, their love. They have no problem complimenting others and promoting others because they are so happy with themselves, that nobody is a threat. They come to serve and not to be served.
Authenticity
This is with ourselves, our thoughts, our behaviour and our words. We have to be genuine. We are not pretending we are anything more or less than ourselves, and that means being okay with our strengths (sometimes I think this is more difficult) and being okay with our weaknesses.
Leaders in 2024 bring our true selves to the table and are not trying to please everyone or be anybody that we are not. Our strength will lie in our willingness to be ourselves, accepting and celebrating who we are and also accepting and celebrating others.
Authenticity is about transparency too. We are okay with ourselves and we bring our true selves wherever we go. We no longer compare, judge or analyse others, we see them as we see ourselves – on a journey of life full of mistakes and ups and downs and we are okay with it.
Accountability/Integrity
In my mind, this is the most important one. A leader not only wants to be accountable but set up avenues of accountability that helps them walk their talk.
They are people of their word. If they say it, they mean it. They are not preaching and teaching something that they are not living themselves. Do I live what I say? If I am coaching love and not fear, do I live love or at least can that be seen as my intention?
We live our integrity and everyone knows that we keep our word. If we say it, we will do it. Our behaviour lines up with our speech and our beliefs. And although we may not always get it right, our intention is set permanently towards living our truth in all areas
We welcome scrutiny of our lives and businesses. We want others’ perspectives because our egos are not tied up to what somebody says about us. We care how we are turning up, so feedback is important.
Passion
Leaders are incredibly passionate about what they do. Not necessarily because they have found the ‘thing’ that turns them on the most or that they love the most, although this is their goal, but mainly because whatever they are doing, they are there intentionally and purposefully and giving all of themselves to the process.
They are passionate because they are doing what they love. Their passion gets them up every morning. That does not mean that everything is perfect or flows smoothly but it does mean that they bring their love, light and joy to their job. It does mean that they are happy with where they are at this moment and throw everything into what they do, because they know they chose it.
If you desire to become more like this, one of the things you can do is study these traits with a small trusted group. You can talk about areas of your lives that you want to do better in and which you feel you are doing best in. And if you are game, you can ask each person to share how they see you according to the five traits.
Carlie Clark