Whether running your own business or leading teams in an office setting, the best leaders require a strong set of leadership qualities to help positively interact with their employees, team members, and clients. Behavioral theories suggest that leadership skills aren’t ingrained and can be taught – people can obtain good leadership qualities through teaching and learning these skills over time.

All business owners and executives have varying experiences and perspectives on the approach and qualities necessary for effective leadership. And not all situations require the same type of leadership style. Great leaders adapt to their surrounding environments and empower the team to succeed together.

Many experts across countless leadership books and articles agree on certain principles required for leading a team to greatness, but when it comes down to it, the most important factor is whether or not the leader is getting the job done. Irrespective of how you define the word leadership, you can’t deny that certain individuals can greatly impact the lives of others based on their experience and insights. While we’re all living different timelines on the journey of life, we look to leaders for guidance and advice.

While some leaders seem like they were naturally born that way, leadership skills can be learned. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t led before. There are certain characteristics, traits, and skills that ultimately build the most effective leaders.

If you’re in a leadership position or role, good communication skills are one of the leadership attributes that are absolutely crucial. Using language to perform one-to-one communication is really all that we have as human beings.

Good leaders listen and pay attention to all of their followers, employees, and every single individual person they are leading. Good leaders, and even great leaders, are not born; they are made. It’s a mix of a lot of things, but first and foremost it’s about having faith in your beliefs. You can’t expect others to consider you a leader unless you have solid faith in your ideas. And once it’s there, you build on it by being a good communicator, listening to others, setting examples, and putting your best foot forward and not giving up. Leadership is all about being passionate about what you do and having confidence in yourself and your followers whom you have to motivate and inspire.

A great leader understands that it is the people they lead that ultimately determine the success or failure of any venture. They surround themselves with great people that they can cultivate into a team of competent, confident individuals who can work well as a team. They then have the ability to guide this team towards a well-defined vision by clearly communicating short and long terms goals, inspiring confidence and trust among colleagues, and influencing common efforts through character rather than by a position of authority. Ultimately, a great leader creates and nurtures other leaders.

Being an effective leader requires constant focus, perseverance, and building a team that is accountable and designed to get results. Without the team, there can be no real leadership. These ten unique perspectives provide great insight while also validating certain commonalities. Many of us in leadership or management positions know what we need to do to be better leaders, we just sometimes fail to act. Being a great leader requires constant personal and professional development, regular transparent feedback from the team, self-reflection, and taking action on feedback received. Great leaders are rarely satisfied with their performance.

Leaders inspire others to follow a certain path in life. These leadership traits and skills are important because human nature requires that certain people need to take charge and help others. Without leaders, it’s very difficult to manage large groups of people, set unified goals, and make progress.