Leadership Traits - Emotional Stability

As leadership traits go, this one (often measured as neuroticism) deserves a better label, however, it does capture a significant aspect of personality. To put a positive spin on it, the most successful leaders are emotionally stable.

Emotionally stable leaders:

• Have a reasonable degree of self esteem
• Create teams who feel psychologically safe to take calculated risks
• Behave predictably

Neurotic leaders:

• React unpredictably
• Throw tantrums
• Shut down innovation and close off important but negative information because people are afraid to approach them
• Are the hot topic of happy hour and get nominated for Bad Boss of the Year Awards

Leadership Tips:

Emotionally stable leaders use anger and disappointment strategically to jog people out of complacency. They understand that occasional and well timed expressions of strong emotion have a galvanizing effect on performance.

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