The Five Characteristics Of Being A Successful Leader

Before ever taking the positions of a great leader everyone must learn to follow. Learning to follow is a great step in the ladder to becoming a successful leader. Being an effective follower and being a successful leader have multiple characteristics in common. There are five characteristics that pop out at me when I think of someone that is a very great follower and on their way to becoming a very efficient leader, these being motivated, accountable, the ability to recognize and seize an opportunity, coachable, and ambitious. Motivation is a key component to becoming an effective follower and getting a job done. If a person is self-motivated they will be more likely to complete the task at hand quickly and more efficiently than if they had

When an employer ask for something to be done they are trusting it to be finished. In the work place for instance, if the employee looses accountability they will get less and less responsibility and eventually face termination. This happens because the trust between the leader and the follower is no longer there. This is why to be a good follower the employee must follow through with what is expected of them. Some of the ways to improve accountability is to be on time, keep a calendar or a date book of important dates, and complete jobs that are assigned on time. (Campbell, 1997,

To be coachable is the ability to listen and take criticism without taking offence. To be able to listen to what leadership is saying and apply it to the job. For an example if a person was in the workplace and leadership came to them and talked to them about what they could do to improve themselves, and the person just blows them off. The person thinks to them selves that they are already to good. Leadership will recognize this downfall and start to progress other people that are willing to listen and learn. In order to learn and progress through the company the person must be coachable. The final characteristic that is important to have in an effective follower is ambition. Ambition is the desire to do or achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work. If a company is trying to decide which follower to promote to the next level, and one is ambitious and one is not, whom do you think will get promoted? An ambitious person will come into the setting everyday with the mentality to do what is asked of them to the best of their ability, and work hard at doing it. No one wants a follower that is lazy and doesn’t care about furthering his or her