Great leaders nurture the strengths and talents of their employees and build teams committed to achieving goals. Wondering what makes an empowering leader that guides their team towards greatness? We’ve compiled five of the top traits.
But before you continue on to learn about these traits, don’t forget to subscribe to Millennium Inspo so you never miss amazing content from industry educators and the MSI team! Read on to learn about empowering leadership styles!
What are the qualities of empowering leaders?
1. Communicate clearly
2. Act with integrity
3. Inspire others
4. Have empathy
5. Share the vision
Effective Leaders…
Communicate Clearly
Powerful leaders know when to talk and when to listen, yet effective communication involves so much more. It also includes sharing valuable information, asking intelligent questions, cultivating input and new ideas, clarifying misunderstandings, and being clear of expectations. The best leaders are able to use communication to inspire and energize their staff.
Leaders must be able to effectively communicate and be approachable to a wide variety of audiences and communication vehicles. Whether one on one, to the entire staff, via phone or email, communication is built on a steady flow of exchanges of ideas and information.
Act with Integrity
A leader with integrity draws on their deep-rooted values to influence decisions, behavior, and interactions with others. These leaders have a clear understanding between right and wrong and are respected for being genuine, principled, fair and consistent. They have a strong sense of character, keep their promises, and communicate openly, honestly and directly with others.
Leaders that act with integrity are trustworthy, and leaders must be trusted to have any efficiency. During a study at The Leadership Institute, researchers found that the qualities that establish trust are competence, consistency, caring, honesty, authenticity, reliability, and feeling comfortable with oneself.
Inspire Others
Leaders empower others and go out of their way to help them achieve their full potential, thus benefiting the success of a business as a whole. You might ask, how do you empower others as a leader? The best leaders drive their team forward with passion, enthusiasm, inspiration, and motivation. They invest time in their team to determine their strengths, needs, and priorities. By making their team feel valued, leaders also learn how to motivate their staff.
Have Empathy
Empathetic leaders are aware of other’s feelings and how these feelings (whether they agree or can relate to them or not) impact the other person’s perception. These leaders are good listeners, nonjudgemental, and have a high degree of emotional intelligence. Empathy helps build trust and strong bonds between a leader and employees. Without empathy, employees will always have their guards up and feel as if they have to look out for their own emotional interest. While with an empathetic leader, employees know that their feelings will never be simply overlooked or ignored.
Share the Vision
A leader with vision has a clear idea of where they want to go, how to get there and what success looks like. However, in order to get there, leaders must articulate the vision clearly and passionately, ensuring the team understands how their individual efforts contribute to higher level goals.
When leaders share the vision, it gives their team a sense of purpose. A sense of the purpose has the power to increase morale, happiness, productivity, employee retention and so much more. Now you know all about empowering others in leadership!
