There are certain leadership values that all successful business people must have regardless of whether you are interacting inside an office or with your remote team virtually.  

In order for a business to succeed, employees need a strong, capable leader in charge. Can you imagine a startup without proper leadership? It’d be chaos.

Think of it like this: you’re recruited for a position at sea. You’ll need to work closely with your coworkers, report details to the higher-ups, and maintain morale.

Seems simple enough, right? Now imagine that the higher-ups aren’t exactly great at their job. Maybe they’re incapable of communicating with the rest of the crew or push their jobs off to one another.

It’d hurt the entire team in the long run and the ship would be a nightmare to work in.

While this may seem like a rather silly example, it’s exactly how employees are going to view you if you lack strong leadership skills. However, some leadership qualities are far more important than others.

Want to learn what you need to focus on? Here are 5 of the biggest leadership values that every business person needs to have.

1. Dependability

Let’s re-visit the ship metaphor for a moment. Assume that you’re on your way to your destination. Suddenly, you spot a gathering group of storm clouds off in the distance.

You do the right thing by alerting the captain, who looks nervously side to side and shrugs it off. Shocked, you ask the captain what he’s planning to do. He then takes off his hat and says that you’re the captain.

Not exactly the best thing to do in the situation, to say the least. The captain is actively putting his workers’ lives at risk by being an incompetent leader.

While the stakes aren’t life or death, the situation is similar in the everyday workplace. Employees count on a leader for support and even guidance.

It’s important that employees can rely on the leader for help when things get tough. Your employees work hard for you. Repay the favor by becoming the most dependable boss possible.

Let them know you’re here for them and that you have a plan. A little bit of confidence can do wonders to establish one’s credibility.

2. Loyalty

Speaking of loyalty, you owe it to yourself and your employees to be a loyal boss. After all, loyalty and dependability go hand-in-hand.

One of the highest reasons for employee turnover, as it turns out, is a lack of loyalty on the part of the boss. If a boss is disloyal to employees, it won’t take long before employees begin to feel discouraged.

If you want to inspire a hardworking, loyal team, start with yourself. You’re going to need a fair bit of people skills to get the job done, beginning with loyalty. Why would anyone want to work in a place where they felt their boss was disloyal?

Startups can’t afford to lose any employees. Stick your neck out and let your employees know that you’re loyal to them. That may mean getting personally involved in a project or giving a second chance.

Sometimes displaying loyalty may not be so easy. However, it’s almost always worth it. Remember, great employees start with a great boss.

Exemplify the virtues of workplace loyalty and you’ll get great results in no time.

3. Tact/Honesty

These two skills were so important that I thought it’d be best to combine them into one section.

However, this one may need a bit of clarification. Honesty doesn’t mean straight-up telling someone that an idea is bad, or that their clothes are unflattering.

It means conveying thoughts or ideas in a tactful way while still conveying true opinion.

Of course, honesty matters. Even a small white lie in the workplace can quickly spin out of control.

The trick here is to find the perfect balance between tact and truth. It’s okay to tell someone that you’re not necessarily on board with their idea. But shutting them down completely isn’t going to get you anywhere.

Instead, get specific. If you don’t like something, it’s okay to say so, just be sure to defend your stance and offer a rebuttal.

Why don’t you like that idea? And more importantly, what can you do to improve it?   If you approach an idea from a negative standpoint, expect employees to hide their ideas from you. Constructive criticism and straight-up criticism aren’t cut from the same cloth.

Be helpful, but be honest.

4. Empathy

Empathy is the ability to relate to someone’s thoughts and emotions.

You’re going to need a fair bit of empathy if you want strong employee engagement. To demonstrate, I’ll use an example below.

Imagine that an employee spent the last few weeks working on an exciting new project you’re interested in. He comes to you and sheepishly admits that it’s not going to be done by the agreed upon deadline. This is going to throw off the whole project.

Now, you have two options here. The first is to get angry and fire or at least reprimand the employee. The second is to show empathy and relate to your employee on a personal level.

Which of these options do you feel demonstrates effective leadership values? It would be easy to reprimand the employee, but perhaps there’s more to the story than they’re letting on.

Think about how you’d want to be treated if you were in their shoes. A little bit of empathy can go a long way in establishing strong leadership.

When it comes to workplace empathy, always remember: do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.

5. Conflict Resolution

It seems that some amount of workplace drama is pretty much unavoidable. But instead of letting it run its course, most professionals advise that you nip it in the bud instead.

Here, our final item of the leadership values come into play. Think of it as a mixture of all the previous leadership values I’ve talked about so far.

To be effective at conflict resolution, you must practice empathy with both sides. It’s also important to be honest and loyal.

EQ goes beyond your mental capacity and personality traits.  It is something that can be identified, learned, and utilized within your daily life to enhance your personal and your team’s productivity.  In fact, TalentSmart “tested emotional intelligence alongside 33 other important workplace skills, and found that emotional intelligence is the strongest predictor of performance, explaining a full 58% of success in all types of jobs.”

Learning how to identify your feelings allows you to gain deeper insights into your EQ.  Conflict resolution, like most of these leadership values, takes time to develop. You’re not going to be perfect at first, but stick with it.

Last Thoughts on These Important Leadership Values

An effective leader is one that demonstrates each of the values listed above. Do you fit the mold?  If not, don’t worry, I can help.

Get in touch today and let me help you transform your startup. I’d love to help your business succeed!