Today I read a book that stated that these are the qualities of a leader: good character, influence, positive attitude, excellent people skills, proven track record, confidence, self discipline, effective communication skills and he/she should be discontent with the status quo.
Now a couple of these are pretty self explaining like confidence and effective communication skills. Others are pretty fuzzy like good character. What is a good character? It might be something different for you than it is for me. Then I think some characteristics are missing like: appropriate functional knowledge, someone who cares for his/her team and passion for your work. We could go on and add more but I think all this is trying to do is assigning labels to people. That makes live easier because you meet someone and give him a label and then you don't worry about it anymore. In turn this also shuts the door to some learning opportunities. I think it's worth to take the time and acknowledge that different industries, teams and people need different leaders. You can't just read a book or practice a certain Leadership style and assume that this is THE way to do it. Stay open and learn. There are many right ways so learn as much as you can and adjust your leadership style as needed.
