leadership qualities

Careless or professional, a person’s work ethics can make or break his/her reputation at work and career growth. Increase your professional ethics by evaluating your current attitudes towards work, identify your pitfalls and take help from these five easy tips to have stronger work ethics and a fulfilling professional life.

Be dedicated and punctual

Strong work ethics are reflected by an employee’s dedication and commitment to his job. Maintain a regular attendance, take responsibility and ownership for your performance, remain focused on your targets, and put in extra efforts to complete your assignments to the best of your ability. You may need to occasionally dedicate a few extra hours, but take it as your chance to outshine the rest of employees.

Your punctuality at work speaks volumes about your professional ethics. Make sure you are on time to work and all work-related appointments. Submit your work in time, foresee delays, and let your employer know about your absences in advance.

Be reliable

Make sure to fulfill all promises and honor your project deadlines; in case you anticipate a delay, take your manager into confidence and set another realistic deadline. Being dependable is the backbone of maintaining an ethical reputation, and induces a relationship of trust between the employer and employees as well as between coworkers by showing that you prove what you portray.

Aim high in productivity and quality of work

Sometimes just working to keep your job intact is not enough. Those with good work ethics remain vigilant about their quality of work. Avoid being a passenger in your team and become a productive member instead. Your quality of work ultimately integrates into the company’s overall quality and reputation.

Finish your assigned tasks before the shift ends and strive to earn a better project next time. Be competitive yet attentive to instructions and details. Don’t hesitate to get help, even when you are leading. Set a standard of quality for you to achieve and take initiative to get projects started instead of waiting to be asked. Your positivity, problem-solving skills, flexibility, communication skills, and openness to feedback will always come in handy to earn you a good reputation at work.

Be cooperative to your co-workers and respectful of your work resources

Respect your peers, be willing to help them and avoid getting interfering or too personal in your interactions. Maintain healthy professional relationships with your coworkers to make collaborations and teamwork go smoother. Be an important contributor to your team and help them meet collective objectives.

To increase your professional ethics, it is absolutely vital that you remain respectful of your work time and resources. Respect the company’s privacy and data protection policies; use office time to work instead of personal engagements, save lunch breaks for personal chats with colleagues and treat all equipment and supplies with care. Your appearance reflects your work ethics, so make sure to dress professionally and maintain a moderate attitude.

Demonstrate a strong character

A good work ethic and a strong character are synonymous to each other in a workplace. Stay modest about your achievements and honest about your setbacks, and foster a trusting bond with clients, managers and colleagues by offering them honest feedback and advice. Your high moral standards, self discipline, and self-motivation will distinguish for the rest of the workforce and convince your supervisors of your loyalty to the company and non-problematic nature.

When you feel that resources are tight, stress levels are running high, your visions of success are blurring out and nothing seems to go according to your plan, you may find yourself easily giving up as a leader and watching your team sink. Take a deep breath, calm down, remind yourself of your leadership aspirations, and re-emphasize on these key qualities that make a great leader:

Honest and Committed

A true leader makes an exceptional leader, period. If you think a certain leader is great because he hid their latest loss from her team, or lied to them about why they underperformed on a certain task, you may want to reconsider. A leader’s team is a reflection of her own morals, so she needs to demonstrate an honest and ethical behavior to expect her team to follow suit. By implementing these values, an exceptional leader commits to ensure that all her teammates are on the same page of standards, and induces a professional and healthy environment to work in.

Farsighted and Expressive

The bleak difference between a good and a great leader is her farsightedness and self-expression. Setting a clear vision of future strategies and performance, and effectively communicating it to the team provides them with a sense of direction and effectively provides employees with an understanding of their roles, responsibilities and conduct. A great leader always stays a step ahead of time and tends to forecast her team’s future success and pitfalls in order to prepare and act accordingly, while taking her team into confidence and keeping them updated with any future plans and strategic changes.

Inspirational and Motivating

Ever been in a situation where you lost all hopes of being successful and needed someone to look up to for inspiration? A great leader does just that! Like a captain goes all out to rescue his sinking ship, a true leader stays composed through adverse situations to keep the team spirits high and boost their morale. Reminding the team members of their achievements uplifts their self-motivation and encourages them to aim higher and perform at a next level.

Confident and Demonstrates a Positive Attitude

There may be nothing worse than being led by a pessimist. A leader has to display a positive attitude in order to steer her team into the right direction. Keep your confidence level high, and reassure everyone that hindrances are normal, and to maintain their focus on the ultimate goal. A calm and confident leader keeps her team from feeling overwhelmed under pressure. Observe a certain level of damage control, reinforce the positivity into your team, and become an exceptional leader by keeping everyone working and moving forward.

Creative and Humorous

While these two qualities may rank last on the list, they are equally essential to have to be an inspirational leader. While a leader’s creative flair can make or break her team, humor makes her see the lighter side of things during a crisis and as your team takes the cue from you, it will keep their moods uplifted and expectations high. As a leader, many of your decisions may not be clear-cut and might force you to be flexible around your set course of action and step out of your comfort zone. Creativity becomes vital in such situations and enables a leader to think outside the box and weigh her choices before arriving at a final decision.