The seven business leadership secrets to improve performance

Is a leader born or made? This is the question that hundreds of courses and master’s degrees in Leadership, Business Management and TED talks try to answer. The secrets of leadership have been thoroughly studied, but no one can say whether a leader’s qualities are due to genetics, upbringing, life circumstances, or a wide mix of all of these. Here we summarize the seven qualities that distinguish a leader.

They have long-term goals. Good leaders always travel with high beams, their goals are long-term oriented. They try to invest little time in day-to-day operations; they don’t wear themselves out in skirmishes and they focus on the future – transforming their company and their business, rather than on putting out fires. They train their ability to anticipate, to draw up long-term strategies and to make complicated decisions with little information.

They train emotional intelligence. Training emotional intelligence helps them to create strong emotional bonds with their team. They know that people are the key to making things happen, and they invest a lot in the cohesion and good climate of their team. They take great care of their emotional bank account, that is, they watch to generate more positive sensations in their relationships with other people than negative ones. They are masters of self-knowledge and self-control – two qualities that allow them to act and remain calm at critical moments or at peaks of stress. On the other hand, self-knowledge helps to stay motivated to be able to encourage the rest of the team. Leaders are not prisoners of their feelings. A good leader should not be carried away by his emotions, but approach the problem from an analytical point of view to reflect on the reasons, causes and consequences and present a suitable solution.

They create business culture. Leadership is transformational. It aspires to have a before and after. They do not seek continuity, but disruption. The best leaders design the corporate culture they want for their company, acting deliberately with concrete actions to bring about the changes they want. They assume these changes and act accordingly.

They demand results. They know how to surround themselves with excellent human capital from whom they can ask for results – they seek to think outside the box, get out of their comfort zone and they know that there is always a higher level to which they aspire. They don’t take No for an answer and can become obsessive – but they tend to have extraordinary vision because they create a strong bond with the teams, and time often proves them right.

They seek (rather pursue) excellence. They know that the optimum exists and they aspire to get it. Don’t settle for the status quo, nor with “go pulling”. They know that everything can be improved, and they fight for it. A good leader’s team always has a higher goal waiting, knows how to recognize the effort and reward his people.

They apply the 33% rule. They follow this theory of Robin Sharma, considered one of the top five leadership experts in the world. It is about dividing the time into three parts and devoting a third of your time to each of these activities. Let’s see: 33% – Do. Execute the day-to-day tasks to which many leaders dedicate 80% of their time. For example, diving headlong into an excel spreadsheet for two hours only to come out of it dull and exhausted. 33% – Think. It is the part dedicated to strategy, to projecting into the future. During this time, people reflect, plan, and look for new opportunities for the future. Most leaders don’t spend even 5% of their time on strategy. 33% – Develop. It is the time spent with another person in the team promoting reflection, commitment and change. For this task, trained qualities of emotional intelligence are required.They inspire those close to them. Leaders have a mission and sometimes a messiah aura that does not go unnoticed by those around them. They spread their passion and inspire with their lifestyle; they make many people want to pursue their passion and their vision of the world. The leaders who cause the most change are those who have an inspiring vision for their project.