7 Traits of Influential Leaders: Part 4

Leadership is a skill that everyone should develop and cultivate. Being a leader does not necessarily have to mean being a manager or a politician – it could also mean being a thought leader, or even just being a great parent. The ability to inspire, direct, and guide others is something that is incredibly valuable. Something that can help you to accomplish more and even raises your confidence and self-worth.

In this series of 7 posts, we’re going to examine what it takes to be a leader by looking at some of the most important traits that history’s greatest exhibit. Every leader is different and part of your journey to becoming one is going to be discovering your own ‘leadership style’. With that said though, there are still definitely some common traits that you can develop and some lessons we can learn from influential figures from history. And what you’ll find is that in some ways, the most important aspects of being a great leader are not what you would expect.

I hope this series will change the way you approach leadership and help you to drastically improve your own results.

Part 4. A Great Leader Has Control Over Their Emotions

Another feature that great leaders share is the ability to keep control over their emotions. This is important for a number of different reasons.

1. You set the tone for your team:

Firstly, as a leader, you will act as a barometer for your team. They will decide whether they need to panic on the basis of whether or not you are panicking – emotions are contagious so you need to stay calm. Kids do this. If they hear or see something that scares them, their first reaction is to look at Mum and Dad’s face, to determine if they should be worried or not. If mum and dad appear calm, children are more likely to remain calm too. So too with your team, if you can keep it together when your team starts to get nervous, they are more likely to follow suit.

2. You think clearer when you’re calm:

Our flight, flight, and freeze responses are triggered by our emotions. When we feel threatened or scared our emotions trigger the instinctive response to either, fight, shut down, or run away. Conversely, when this instinct is triggered it also shuts down the rational thinking part of our brain to limit delays in our response time.

Helpful if you’re being chased by a lion, but there is almost no situation in a leadership context where this is an advantage. In fact, leaders who are reactive and explode or shut out their team when under pressure are seldom effective in problem-solving. Being in control of your emotions will allow you to take responsibility, think through your challenges, and come up with a solution that is proactive and most beneficial for all involved.

3. Staying calm reinforces your authority and credibility:

Being able to control your emotions is going to help you avoid the dreaded foot in mouth disease. Saying things in the heat of the moment that are hurtful, defensive, or uncontrolled will only cause you to lose trust equity and break relationship. Once that happens people are far less likely to open up or give their best, let alone want to listen to or follow you where you are trying to take them. Just because you are in charge, doesn’t give you permission to get in someone’s face.

Stay calm and you will create the sense that you are in control. In turn, this will build confidence in what you say and do and your team will respect you more.

Don’t mistake the importance of controlling your emotions as not having them. As we’ll see later, passion is very important. You just need to know when to utilize emotion, it’s just a matter of being able to use it strategically rather than letting it rule your head.

Want to read ahead? Down load the eBook with all 7 traits here:

If you would like to learn more about effectively growing in your leadership, why not check out our FREE Goal setting guide. See below for details. https://leadcommunicategrow.com/free-goal-setting-guide/

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