[Blog] 7 Characteristics of Great Leaders

I’ve had the privilege of knowing some remarkable leaders. Let me list a few characteristics that are common to them: 

• They have a high threshold for risk. They’re not afraid to fail, and they don’t take failure personally. This gives them a lot of room to experiment and be honest about the results.
• They applaud team members who show a high-risk threshold. They don’t insist on being the only ones with great ideas.
• They eagerly soak up the insights and ideas of other gifted leaders, so they’re always learning and growing. They know that leaders outside their own ecosystem probably see things through a different lens, and they can learn from those leaders. 
• They’re emotionally and psychologically secure. Their intensity isn’t misplaced in condemning those who fail, and they don’t daydream about awards and praise. 
• They see failure as a normal part of learning, not a cataclysm. 
• They can accept others’ disappointment, confusion, and resistance without overreacting. 
• They know that all significant ministry is built on the bedrock of trust, which is established by a long history of honest, affirming relationships and a track record of wise decisions. 

Not long ago, I met with a friend who is one of the finest leaders I’ve ever known. He shared some elements of a new vision, but I could tell something was bothering him. I asked, “What’s the matter? What are you afraid of?”

He looked at me and replied, “Sam, I’m afraid I’ll be too dis- couraged by my thousandth failure.”

He’s a leader who isn’t surprised by failure. Of course, he tries to be as wise as possible, so he can avoid failure if possible, but the risk of failure is inherent in any grand venture. His comment told me that he was imagining the limits of his risk-taking. What would it take for him to come to the end and give up? If it were five hundred failures, he still had a long way to go!

Leadership is sometimes lonely, but a leader is never alone in the vision. To lead into and through chaos, leaders need to make regular deposits of relational equity. As we’ve seen, these deposits don’t happen in Board and Leadership Team meetings. They happen in unguarded, relaxed times, and they happen when the leader is honest and vulnerable. If you don’t have enough deposits of trust-building connections, meetings can become strained, mundane, and sometimes contentious. Patrick Lencioni has written authoritatively about the necessity of leaders building trust. He has observed, “People will walk through fire for a leader that’s true and human.” Trust is the most essential ingredient on any team.

This blog was extracted from Sam Chand’s How Leaders Create Chaos: And why they should! Get your copy and take your organization to the next level at SamChandBook.com.