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5 Personality Traits of Leaders

July 28, 2011 By

It’s a cut-throat world out there and the competition has gotten downright savage – especially for CEOs and other leaders. Today, the best leaders are taking the time to understand what personality traits help to improve their viability and leadership skills, in order to become a leader that others can’t help but follow.
There are five personality traits of leaders that anyone interested in climbing the corporate ladder should work to develop. Taking the time to learn about the important traits of a CEO and cement them with everyday experience is the best way to ensure you will make it up that ladder.

  1. Don’t Be A Character, Have Character: The most effective leaders share integrity as a core personality trait. They do what they say and hold themselves to the same standards as their employees. Treating peers and employees with honesty and respect forms the bedrock of good management skills. It is only through living the old adage, “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is looking, that you can hope to be a successful leader.
  2. Don’t be Afraid to Make Decisions: Great leaders have an effective decision-making process. Whether your personal decision-making style runs to the quick and messy or if you need to take the time to consider every option, remember Q-CAT: Quick, Committed, Analytical, and Thoughtful.
  3. There Is No “I” In Team, But There Is One In Build: Learning to build a team can make or break a leader. Finding the most qualified people is only one important step. A successful CEO isn’t afraid let talented people do their jobs to help the organization run more smoothly and provide you with much needed assistance. Don’t be a micro-manager. Instead, focus on building a team.
  4. There Is A Place For Passion in the Workplace: Passion for your product, passion for your ideals, and passion for your employees and peers can help set you apart from other leaders. In part, being a leader means being a cheerleader. Combining passion with integrity creates a powerful punch that most employees will appreciate.
  5. 20/20 Sight, Even When It’s Hard To See: Sometimes it’s hard to see the future for a company. Even the most successful businesses, with a product that has been well developed, need a leader with vision. A talented CEO understands that the financial future of the company is more than a set of figures and numbers. A leader’s vision is the blueprint for development of the company, its products, and its employees.

Some of these skills for company leaders can be taught in a classroom, but you must be willing to do the work to be successful. Making the difficult decision, helping employees see the light at the end of a tough year, building a group of employees that works as a team, and creating a vision for your company that all can follow are the raw ingredients of a true leader. Are you a true leader?

Filed Under: Leadership

Deficit to Debt – The Impact of Budget Deficits on the National Debt

June 12, 2011 By
The national debt clock outside the IRS office...

Image via Wikipedia

Two words – “deficit” and “debt” are tossed around – often interchangeably – and confuse rather than clarify an understanding of America’s national debt status. The reality is that the United States has a national debt of over $14.3 trillion dollars. That is a difficult number to comprehend and even more difficult to resolve. The other reality is that the 2010 federal budget posted a $1.29 trillion deficit.

In simplest terms, the federal budget is the amount of money set aside to finance the government’s operation for one fiscal year. The budget can be viewed as a two column sheet. One column represents the revenue collected to finance the budget’s expenses. The second column represents the expenditures the government makes. Ideally, at the end of the year there should be more money left in the surplus column, or revenue exceeded expenditures. At the least, revenue should equal expenditures for a “balanced” budget. Unfortunately, during the past decade expenditures have exceeded revenue to create deficits.

A budget deficit is considered part of the national debt and is added to the debt each year that a deficit occurs. The effect is cummulative. The total national debt is a combination of the debt held by the public, or all federal securities held outside the the government, and intergovernmental debt – treasury securities held in accounts and administered by the federal government. One of the troubling aspects of the debt held by the public is that it includes debt owed to foreign countries; roughly 32 percent of the national debt. The solution to reducing the growing national debt is yearly budget surpluses.

 

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