If we talk about what character traits a person in a leadership position should have, it is worth taking into account not only personal characteristics, but also the field of activity in which he works. There are examples that demonstrate that not all qualities of a successful person lead to a positive result. The main thing for a leader is the ability to maintain a balance between the desire to complete a task and the resources expended.
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Strength of character
This refers to the ability to persistently strive for a goal, maintaining interest in it despite failures, boredom and temporary lack of progress.
It is the combination of passion, resilience and self-discipline that moves us forward despite obstacles. According to psychologist Angela Duckworth, author of the book “Grit,” this quality is even more important for success than talent or intelligence. No matter how gifted you are, without strong character you will achieve little. It is he who helps to strive for the goal over time.
Now let's look at examples
If earlier, when speaking about strength, we meant, first of all, physical data, but now this concept is much broader. In ancient times, to be considered such, a person only had to kill a mammoth, but now this quality is measured by mental, intellectual and other abilities that make many people not just strong, but unique and great personalities.
Let's get acquainted with examples of strong people who have already made history or are just starting their journey, motivating others to succeed.
Peter I
Peter I is an outstanding ruler who made a significant contribution to the development of the state. He was his father's fourteenth child and his mother's first-born. Peter I's father passed away when the future tsar was not even four years old.
As Tsar, Peter I set himself the goal of raising Russia to the level of successful countries. The ruler divided the country into ten provinces, subordinated the church to the state, founded an army and navy, and also reformed the sphere of education and culture: new educational institutions began to open, and the opportunity to study abroad became available. Thanks to the innovations of Peter I, Russia became an empire, and the ruler received the title of “Great Emperor”.
Some interesting facts: Peter I was a little over two meters tall, but at the same time he had small feet. To correct for this difference, he wore shoes several sizes larger. The emperor was against drunkenness and fought against it with the help of a cast iron medal: it was hung on those who abused alcohol so that it was impossible to remove it, and you had to wear it for seven days. Peter I was versed in various crafts; he mastered the skills of a mason, carpenter, etc.
The king had a stern character, the formation of which was probably influenced by a tragic situation in childhood: in front of the eyes of a little boy, rebels dealt with his relatives. The personality of Peter I still arouses interest, but the fact that he determined the course of Russia's development for many years to come made him one of the great personalities who gave strength to the state.
Yuri Gagarin
Could one day a boy from a simple family have thought that he would become the first person to conquer space? Probably not.
Yuri Gagarin lived in the village of Klushino. In 1941, little Yura was preparing to go to school, but instead of happy days at his desk, he was forced to fight for life, coming face to face with the war. The Germans kicked his family out of their house, where they later set up a workshop. He lived in a dugout with his family for a year and a half without the opportunity to stand up to his full height and move freely.
Despite all the troubles, Yuri Gagarin was able to succeed in his studies, graduated from college, an industrial technical school and entered a sports flying club, where he made his first flight. Once he was almost expelled from school due to the fact that he could not land the plane correctly. In the end, it turned out that his short stature was to blame. The problem was solved by placing a thick pad on the chair.
In 1961, he was included in a group of six candidates for space flight. Yuri Alekseevich successfully passed all the tests and training, leaving no doubt that he should be the chosen one.
Yuri Gagarin died in a plane crash, the cause of which is still controversial. In his note, which he wrote to his wife before flying into space, there was the following: “Once in childhood I read the words of Valery Chkalov: “If there is to be, then to be the first.” So I’m trying to be that and will be until the end.” The spouse received the note only after the pilot’s death [Anews.com, 2020].
Elon Musk
This name is probably on everyone’s lips, but few people know that in childhood, today’s American entrepreneur, engineer and billionaire was a withdrawn child and was even subjected to violence from his peers, and once, after another beating, he had to repair a broken nose.
Elon's parents divorced, and the boy decided to live with his father, who had a difficult character. As a child, Elon Musk helped his father at work, which was related to construction. At the age of ten, Musk was given a computer, and at the age of twelve he sold his first program, a video game, for five hundred dollars. In 1995, he entered Stanford, which he left exactly two days later to start his first company.
Today, Elon Musk is the founder of several companies, such as X.com and PayPal (personal money transfers), SpaceX (development of launch vehicles), Tesla (production of electric vehicles), etc. He was awarded the title of the best entrepreneur of the year and included in the list of the most influential people of the twenty-first century, and was also awarded the Heinlein Prize for achievements in the commercialization of space [Biography.com, 2021].
Some more inspiring stories
Nick Vujicic has no arms since birth, and a small foot with two toes protrudes directly from his thigh. Despite his rare disease, Nick leads a full life that can be the envy of those who are completely healthy. He swims, surfs, plays football and golf. Moreover, he graduated from college and received a diploma in two specializations.
Nick Vujicic gives lectures where, by his example, he motivates people not to give up and believe in themselves. By the way, he is married and has four children who were born absolutely healthy. Isn't this happiness?
Jessica Cox is not just a female pilot, but a pilot without arms. She has a birth defect. The most interesting thing is that during pregnancy, all tests for Jessica’s mother indicated that the baby was developing without pathologies.
Despite her peculiarity, the girl drives a car and combs her own hair, she does all this with the help of her legs. She also trained as a psychologist, dances, and has a double black belt in taekwondo.
To train as a pilot, the girl took a three-year course in airplane driving, where she was taught by three instructors. This is what willpower and determination mean!
Andrea Bocelli is a singer from Italy who is known throughout the world. Andrea's talent for music manifested itself in childhood, but, unfortunately, he experienced vision problems due to glaucoma, and being hit on the head by a ball while playing football completely made the boy blind.
Despite this, he received a musical education and was able to attract attention: he was invited to various performances. Andrea Bocelli was one of the first who was able to combine opera music with pop style.
As you can see, personal strength, first of all, manifests itself in indomitability in the face of difficulties, perseverance of character, powerful self-motivation and fortitude. Such different stories, but they all prove that each of us is the creator of our own destiny.
Ability to adapt
We live in a world that is constantly changing, and this process is unlikely to slow down in the future. The skills, knowledge and connections that were important yesterday may very well be worthless tomorrow. Therefore, the ability to change and adapt to new conditions is an extremely important skill. Most companies will need people who have it to remain relevant.
Darwin also said that it is not the strongest or the smartest who survive, but the one who best adapts to change. This ability to adapt, improvise and change strategy depending on the problem gives a human an advantage over a computer.
Radiate positive energy
The world needs more calm and positive people. Be the person who genuinely radiates positive and uplifting energy.
Be sincere and transparent. Be a beacon of light for others. Avoid complaining about circumstances, the weather, or the government.
Avoid making negative assumptions and judgments about people. Be optimistic. Benefit people. Accept the flaws of others. Forgive people's mistakes.
Be generous with your compliments. Make people feel good.
Accepting failure
Paradoxically, the first step to success is failure. Nothing is perfect and nothing can be perfect. Try, fail and try again. At the same time, focus not on the results, but on the lessons learned: those who learn them will achieve success in the future. Every failure brings you closer to your goal. If, of course, you study on it. And we truly “fail” only if we don’t get back on our feet after falling.
“An iterative evolutionary algorithm involving variation and selection finds solutions in a world where problems are constantly changing, trying every possible option and doing whatever might work,” writes economist Tim Harford in Through Failure to Victory. Darwin's laws in life and business."
So if you fail, try to learn from it as soon as possible.
TOP 10 qualities of a successful person
If you step away from being tied to a particular profession, there are a number of features necessary for a leader:
- Self-confidence is a necessary quality, but it must be balanced. Of course, it is important to move forward, realizing that there are no insoluble problems, but we need to take into account the degree of risk. A leader is responsible not only for himself, but also for those around him, therefore, when moving forward, it is necessary to clearly understand the consequences of the development of the situation.
- Result-oriented - helps to complete what you start. It is important to be able to convey this desire to subordinates and infect them with enthusiasm. Proper self-motivation opens up opportunities for transferring enthusiasm to the team.
- Self-control and discipline are components of business success. They help you follow the plan without shifting responsibility for the result to others, and allow you to lead the group forward.
- Planning and time management flow from one another and make it possible to eliminate unnecessary actions. A calculated and thoughtful approach saves time and resources.
- Efficiency is a derivative of self-confidence. By being aware of the vector of activity and taking clear sequential steps, a person increases productivity. While the unsure hesitates over every decision.
- Communication skills are the main trait of a successful individual, no matter whether he leads a team or not. The ability not only to speak, but also to listen, and most importantly, to hear, contributes to the formation of correct conclusions. Using this knowledge, it is not difficult to control society.
- Patience is a quality of a leader; it makes it possible to strive and achieve goals, not paying attention to failures, maneuvering in a sea of circumstances.
- Responsibility allows you to soberly assess the consequences of your activities. Thanks to it, a person selects only feasible tasks for implementation.
- Independence is seen as an opportunity to distance yourself from envy and gossip. Helps to direct a clear mind towards profitable and useful things. A successful person will not participate in empty conversations and discussions, wasting precious time.
- A creative approach is creative thinking that allows you to rotate a situation from different angles, see opportunities and new solutions. Generating ideas is a hallmark of leaders; they are able to create projects out of nothing and implement them in the most unexpected way.
Flexibility in learning
As futurist Alvin Toffler said, in the 21st century, the illiterate will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn. Real learning begins with your career. It requires you to constantly acquire new knowledge, and in the process you will have to repeatedly abandon outdated methods.
To succeed in the modern world, you need to be constantly ready to adapt: forget old rules and learn new ones. This requires questioning commonly held beliefs, challenging old views, and relearning what is currently important to your work, your industry, and your life in general.
Four steps to success
There is no universal recipe that will allow you to develop all the qualities of a successful person. But there are certain steps that will contribute to the development of personal properties that are useful for achieving life goals.
Steps to achieve success:
- Setting short-term, medium-term and long-term goals. It is important that they meet the goal, are specific and logical. Having small tasks will allow you to achieve serious results in the medium and long term using successive steps. Each of them must be given a reasonable time limit. Objectives and goals must be flexible so that they can be adjusted in response to changing external conditions.
- Reading and self-improvement. It is important to constantly learn, learn about new products in the field where the goal is to achieve success. Literature must also be selected for these tasks. Reading should not be spontaneous, just like trainings, courses and educational programs. Everything must be systematized and structured.
- To hone the qualities of self-control, discipline and planning, it is worth starting to record everything on paper or electronic media. Having a tangible plan for the year, month or day will make it easier to stick to it without violations or deviations. To better understand yourself and self-analysis, you can start keeping a diary where you can write down all your thoughts, successes and failures, strengths and weaknesses.
- It is important to structure your life so that all areas of it are controlled. You need to exercise daily, read, breathe fresh air, eat right, and give up bad habits. Expand your horizons through travel and new acquaintances.
There are many such steps that can be formulated. But even if you implement only the four steps listed above, you will notice how your life will change for the better: your attitude towards life will become more meaningful, and the basic qualities of a successful person will be formed. And this is halfway in the process of achieving success in life.
Working with information
The ability to comprehend, analyze and apply information is an extremely important skill. After all, in order to make decisions and cope with problems, you need to collect reliable data, evaluate it and choose the most suitable option for a particular situation.
Someone who can look at a problem from different angles often finds an unexpectedly elegant solution, while simultaneously revealing how narrowly others have viewed the issue.
This requires both critical and creative thinking. According to philosopher Francis Bacon, critical thinking is the desire to seek and the testing of patience. It presupposes a rejection of haste in passing judgments and caution in their execution, as well as hatred of any kind of deception. Creative thinking is based on ingenuity and the ability to find new ways to perform old tasks.
Success concept
Each person understands success differently. This depends on the intellectual and cultural level of the individual, the rules accepted in society, the characteristics of upbringing, and value guidelines. There is no universal concept of success, but you can make a list of classic traits that characterize it.
Aspects that make up success:
- Faith in the future, having dreams and clear goals. A positive attitude towards what is happening.
- Love for your activity.
- Out-of-the-box thinking, creativity.
- Honesty towards yourself and others.
- Adequate response to mistakes. Learning from your own and others' shortcomings. After each failure, an analysis of the reasons that led to the fiasco is carried out. Adequate conclusions are drawn that will help avoid similar mistakes in the future. Any failure only makes you stronger.
- Structure and organization of daily life.
- Focus on self-development and self-improvement. Ability to see advantages and opportunities. Investing in your development and improvement.
- Taking care of your body, playing sports, active lifestyle, proper sleep, proper nutrition.
- Resistance to occupational deformation is desirable.
Based on the above aspects, you can try to form a simple concept of the phenomenon in question.
Success is achieving your goals through thoughtful and systematic decisions and actions. In a narrower sense, success is a positive result in any activity, recognition of a person’s merits in society.
Emotional intellect
People with high levels of emotional intelligence have well-developed sensitivity, empathy, and self-awareness. They also know how to communicate perfectly: this skill helps to build relationships with others, understand their motives and predict their reactions.
All areas of activity that require emotional intelligence, which is not available to computers, will be very popular in the future. And if you're not a very social person, you still have time to develop communication skills to better understand others.
Be simpler and calmer
Ego sometimes makes us too serious and too rigid. Let go of the desire to always be defensive towards yourself.
Let go of the desire to show other people how superior you are. Be a simple and calm person.
Stop taking things too personally and learn to laugh at your shortcomings. We are all flesh and bones, and none of us are perfect.
Life is much more enjoyable and colorful when we push aside the ego and allow ourselves to relax.
Personal branding
The impression that is created about you is very important. Among other things, it helps to inspire trust among colleagues, clients and managers.
In many areas, being successful means standing out in some way. Think about what you are particularly good at. Select one or more skills around which you will build your personal brand.
Also think about what your social media profiles say about you. If you're not active on platforms relevant to your work, it's time to get active. Update your information to match your new look. Start with the basics: remove inappropriate photos and change your email name to something more professional.
What's better to hide
It is better not to display such aspects of character as greed, selfishness, rudeness and any other qualities that are related to undesirable factors. For example, you should not indicate weaknesses in the position of an engineer such as inattention or absent-mindedness. An engineer must be as focused and attentive as possible; these are the basic conditions.
Non-standard listing of qualities
You can communicate your willingness to do a lot to get a specific job, but not indicate your willingness to do everything. The manager must see that the person wants to develop and learn for the sake of the position. But in no case should he see the ability to deceive, evade others.
Deep Thinking
We are usually not taught to think - it is assumed that we already know how to do it. But having information is not the same as understanding. Deeper thinking leads to deeper living. And the superficial is the opposite. So think about how deep a thinker you are.
Challenge yourself for the next year to commit to going deeper into the areas that matter to you. This will help you understand them better. Compare results, analyze, understand and apply different mental models.
It’s like reading. If you read a book once, you will only have a superficial understanding of the subject. And if you read it several times, make extracts, formulate conclusions, then you will understand the topic much better.
Habits of successful people
Having examined the behavioral characteristics of many celebrities, we were able to conclude that they have similar habits that largely contributed to the achievement of the result:
- Early rise every day.
- Planning each next day, regardless of whether it will be a working day or a rest day. Aimless existence destroys personality.
- Multitasking is not for a leader. The simultaneous execution of several processes often leads to the fact that none is completed. Set no more than 3 goals a day and consistently achieve them.
- Sport keeps you active, increases self-esteem, and has a positive effect on health.
- Correctly set priorities and an understanding that rest and work should coexist in harmony give strength to make decisions on everyday life. Time spent with family on weekends, doing what you love, and going for walks are useful activities that contribute to personal development.
- 20 minutes of silence daily. This is the period that allows you to sort out the accumulated information and comprehend it.
- Weekly analysis of actions helps to identify shortcomings that can be corrected in a short time.
- Charity is a mandatory activity for wealthy people. True, each of them pursues their own goals here.
- Planning. Businessmen build a schedule for the week, forming goals and expected results.
Today, the division by gender has disappeared, but despite this, it is more difficult for women to reach heights in their careers and occupy leadership positions. For some, this is an obstacle; a strong personality will regard this situation as a challenge and will strive to overcome it. There is a choice of professions to which men do not have access.
