Recently I was at a party and Bob, a successful business owner, asked me “What are the three most important things to being a good leader?” He wanted the quick answer I share with my clients.

There were so many things to consider and honestly, I was not sure what to say; I wanted to give a thoughtful and powerful response.

In the short time I had to respond, I pictured myself delivering a talk on leadership and what three leadership strengths were most important. The content of the talk in my mind’s eye was not clear. What was clear to me and how I responded was to say that, as a leadership coach, I help clients focus on key areas to develop their own personalized leadership strategies so they can contribute more powerfully in their roles.

Key Areas In Leadership Development

• Use Emotional Intelligence: Do you have the ability to connect emotionally with others in order to provide inspirational leadership, vision and clarity to serve the goals and needs of the organization?
• Know Your Innate Leadership Style: How do you naturally solve a problem and do you have the freedom to operate within your innate talent in your current role?
• Leverage Your Strengths: Do you know your strengths and have the ability to self-manage so you can artfully leverage your talents? Do you understand where overusing strengths can become an issue and when you may need to delegate those leadership strengths that exhaust you?

Each of these areas is rich with many layers that allow clients to build a greater understanding of how to lead, and how to broaden and deepen their impact as leaders. I wish I had a very simple answer in the moment for Bob’s question, “What are the three most important things I need to know to lead?”

Takeaway

In hindsight, the best response to Bob’s question would have been to turn back the table and ask him, “What are your biggest challenges as a leader and what would help you be a better leader?”

Feel free to use the comments section to tell me what your leadership challenges are. I’d love to know!