Leadership is a must in every field. Being the face of the whole team, a leader will often be put under pressure to be perfect and to represent the whole team in the best way. The article highlights the key factors necessary to be a leader, especially why a selfless character is required. Let’s know about Selfless Leader Qualities.
Best leader = selfless!
Qualities in a selfless leader-
Not everyone can be a leader, taking the correct decisions, maintaining unity among the team despite differences of opinions, setting goals, identifying the team’s potential, distributing the task equally, keeping the team motivated, etc require a selfless leader with the following qualities. A selfless leader will-
- Stay Humble-
A selfless humble leader is someone who does not regard oneself as greater than his/her team members. They instead join hands in helping each team member. They don’t feel embarrassed to be real and treat each member as a family.
- Care-
A selfless leader will genuinely care for each individual in the team irrespective of race, gender, class, status, or any other standards but rather treats everyone according to their talents and the efforts that they pour into the task.
- Naturally inspire-
The efforts that they put into the task naturally inspire other team members to do the same. Instead of commanding the team, they facilitate them which drives the team to achieve goals.
- Forgive-
They do not count others’ mistakes or remember them. They forgive them immediately because the team has to keep going. They don’t hold grudges against anyone. They choose not to benefit from anyone’s loss.
- Always for the team-
They will love to celebrate success together. They will always think of the team. They will not let any negative impact reach their team thus they usually spend the loss alone in analyzing ways to improve for assured success the next time.
- Support others-
They don’t shy away from helping others. They instead educate and encourage others for the task. We often fail to notice our skills and talents, while others can recognize them easily. This same thing happens when a leader can easily recognize the talents of his teammates and help them to bring that up for the task.
- Persevere-
Working continuously can weary the team. A selfless leader will look up for ways to keep the team going. They constantly stir the thirst for achieving the dream among the team, motivating them.
- Gratitude-
They will always be thankful to the team. They will never take the credit for themselves, instead share the spotlight. They will denote ‘we’ more often than ‘I’.
Before analyzing yourself, if you are a selfless leader or not, remember that no leader is perfect, and that leadership is a skill that can be developed. For learning leadership, you need to be more socially active, it is a social process, it is the ‘experience’ that teaches you. You will not find leadership in your destination but in your journey to become one. So is the same with being selfless, you don’t learn it overnight, it is a lifelong process. You inspire people in that process. To develop leadership, never feel embarrassed if you are corrected, a leader is built to be so. A true leader will never dominate to attain his/her vision. All of these points raise the next question: why should a leader be selfless? How does selflessness help a leader?
Why selflessness?
Not just a leader but a selfless leader is the one who leaves an unforgettable impact on people’s life because-
- What you give is what you get, your selflessness will inspire others to be selfless thus influencing the whole team to value each other as themselves.
- You lay a foundation of equality and unity by being selfless.
- An individual’s success will become the success of the whole team.
- You will naturally attract the best individuals to join your team.
- Your selflessness will create an atmosphere for your teammates to grow and sharpen their skills. A free atmosphere without restrictions.
- Your teammates will instinctively feel like doing more, thus making work interesting. Your team can offer quality and quantity when they are inspired to do so rather than working under pressure.
- Selflessness will promote transparency. The survival and strength of the whole team is dependent on how true they are to each other.
- You will not feel bad if someone from your team outshines you, instead you will be motivated to become like them.
- Selflessness will instill the depth of your vision in each of your teammates equally. They will have the same thirst as you have for achieving the vision.
- Your confidence in the team will induce confidence in each team member.
How to become a selfless leader?
Let us start from basic-
- Start by helping your team with one task, the satisfaction you will get after doing that will motivate you to do more.
- Make time to spend with your team.
- Be sensitive enough to notice changes.
- Be quick to appreciate and recognize small efforts.
- Be patient with mistakes. Avoid identifying that individual with that mistake.
- Ask for acknowledgment from each member for the overall task.
- Have a listening ear, note them down and consider them while making a decision.
- If you don’t agree with someone’s opinion, don’t directly confront them, but think once by putting yourself in their place. If it could be improvised, say your opinion in such a way that the other person will understand the reason behind it, proceed if everyone agrees with it.
- Apologize when you are wrong.
- Avoid thinking of rewards when you are helping someone. This will make you expect and feel dejected if it doesn’t happen that way.
- Lastly, but most importantly, make time for yourself, give time for your hobbies, vent out all negativity, and have adequate sleep. Play a sport, meet up with friends. Selflessness doesn’t mean neglecting your own basic needs.
Can everyone be a selfless leader?
The answer to this is completely dependent on how much you want to be a selfless leader. It takes time to be one as the aim just doesn’t underline the fact to be a selfless leader but around self-development. You need to first focus and identify your personality, analyze to which extent you need to grow to imbibe the quality of selflessness, ask your close ones about your personality, observe yourself in a group, observe how you spend your leisure hours, observe your habits; the key to imbibe selflessness and leadership is to first know yourself.
Let us look into the lives of few eminent personalities to understand the importance of a selfless leader. Note that all of them have equally contributed and that they are not arranged in the measure of selflessness they have/had-
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr-
History itself is evidence of how selfless Dr. King was. His selflessness, determination, fearlessness, and courage made people believe that all are created to be equal. His mission was clear, his dream was big, deeply rooted in values, his speech ‘I Have a Dream’ inspired many hearts; thus he was able to gain civil rights peacefully despite knowing that his life was always at stake in his road to achieving this vision. More than a leader, he is addressed like a hero. Even though he was shot dead, he is still alive in the hearts of people. The impact of selflessness is eternal.
Oprah Winfrey-
She is known for influencing millions with her positivity. Despite being physically abused at a very young age, undergoing pregnancy, delivering a premature baby, and losing him at infancy, she chose to stand strong and thus inspire others. She believes in the power of dreams. She says that her dreams helped her survive the rough phases of her life. She is now a successful actress, talk show host, author, television producer, and philanthropist. In the history of America, she was once the only black billionaire and the richest African American of the 20th century. Though not counted as a leader, her attribute of selflessly influencing others to stand strong in life despite difficulties thus raising many other leaders, is in itself a virtue of a great leader.
Ronald Reagan-
The 40th US president Ronald Wilson Reagan is often referred to as one to spread optimism in the country. People had difficulty in describing him because of his diversified nature, they called him optimistic, intelligent, articulate, friendly, well-mannered, charismatic, principled, etc. His company with people mattered the most as he genuinely liked being with them. He did not treat the CEO and the janitor differently. Once his speech was not up to the mark, the newspapers criticized it the next day to which he responded to his staff that even he knew that the speech was not as expected but if he changed it too much, the person who wrote the speech for him might feel bad! Such a selfless leader for whom every person’s efforts matter equally is one in a million.
There are umpteen names to add to the list as there are leaders who are selfless enough to not let their names be known. It is human nature that we cannot be 100% selfless, but even 1% can bring about changes. Let us bring up that 1% and be a selfless leader. There are many selfless leaders around you too, make sure that you appreciate their selflessness; the future lies in the hands of selfless leaders!
