Tempo logotype
🧰 The Maverick's guide to Strategic Portfolio Management [Live webinar]Register Now

How to become a great leader: Skills, traits, and strategies

Learn how to be a great leader by studying examples from industry giants. Motivate your team with effective leadership strategies.
From Team '23

Tempo Team

Good leadership comes from the ability to recognize and amplify human potential. It requires individuals to inspire others toward something greater than themselves, and the best leaders create something people want to support.

Great leaders must be open to change in order to create something their team and their audience are excited about. The ability to take smart risks and pivot when necessary keeps an organization competitive. For example, Jeff Bezos transformed Amazon multiple times, turning the online bookstore into a global commerce and technology empire. His success came from an unrelenting commitment to reinvention.

If you’re wondering how to be a great leader, you can gain powerful insights from the success of industry giants like Bezos. Here, we’ll share success stories to illustrate how you can lift your organization to greater heights.

How great leaders inspire and mobilize their teams

Author and inspirational speaker Simon Sinek said, “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.”

Effective leaders communicate a “why” to convert passive participants into active advocates. This requires them to translate corporate objectives into a narrative that resonates with fundamental human desires for meaning and connection.

In business, good leaders use emotional intelligence and connect with the people who make up their organizations. They create ecosystems where individual contributions are recognized as essential components of a whole, turning employees from resources into strategic partners.

Steps to cultivate essential leadership skills

Becoming a better leader requires self-awareness and intentional growth. This is where one of the most important – yet often overlooked – leadership skills comes in handy: the ability to listen. By engaging with your team, you’ll uncover valuable insights and opportunities to improve.

The following steps will help strengthen your skills through introspection and external feedback:

  1. Set clear personal development goals: Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses to identify leadership qualities you want to improve.

  2. Regularly seek constructive feedback: Ask for feedback from your team members, peers, and mentors. Maintain various channels for constructive criticism before, during, and after projects.

  3. Delegate and trust your team: A good leader empowers others. Building trust between team members promotes efficiency and creative problem-solving.

  4. Develop a decision-making framework: Find a system suited to your leadership style that allows you to evaluate options effectively while encouraging team member and stakeholder input.

  5. Regular reflection: Self-reflection allows you to learn from successes and mistakes, further sharpening your skills.

Sign up for a demo

Register

Key traits of a great leader

Great leaders foster an environment of trust, engagement, and motivation. They inspire loyalty and commitment from their team members by aligning their actions with their words, especially in tough situations.

The following examples demonstrate how strong leaders guide their team members with qualities like empathy, resilience, critical thinking, and creativity:

Empathy

Employees who feel respected invest themselves in an organization’s success. Howard Schultz, former CEO of Starbucks, ensured the company offered health insurance to every eligible full- and part-time employee even though he wasn’t legally required to. He provided insurance to part-time employees because he understood genuine care inspires genuine commitment. 

Resilience

Leaders use pressure to sharpen their resolve. When Howard Schultz returned to Starbucks as CEO in 2008, the company was in crisis. Profits were plummeting, stores were closing, and its brand identity was fading.

Instead of panicking or making short-term cuts, Schultz doubled down on the company’s core values. He temporarily closed thousands of stores for barista retraining, reinvested in quality, and refocused on customer experience. His steady leadership style eventually restored Starbucks to profitability.

Critical thinking

A good leader challenges assumptions and asks the tough questions others overlook. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella transformed his organization by shifting its culture from knowing everything to learning everything. He upended the previously insular and competitive work environment, encouraging team members to learn from failure and continuously grow.

Creativity

Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world.”

Creativity helps teams break free from the norm and envision new possibilities. Effective leaders see opportunities where others see obstacles, and they encourage experimentation.

Leadership skills to develop for long-term success

Professional development is an ongoing process. Good leaders don’t just possess the previously mentioned traits; they continuously sharpen specific skills to better serve their organization.

These are some of the most essential leadership skills:

Focus

Leaders must project a clear vision and purpose to inspire and motivate team members. Praticing discipline and maintaining focus upholds organizational values while adapting to new developments and embracing change.

For example, Warren Buffett understands the importance of perseverance when facing challenges. Buffett’s ability to navigate market shifts, avoid fleeting trends, and stay focused on long-term goals has kept Berkshire Hathaway thriving for decades.

Communication

Great leaders make their ideas easy to understand. They strip away the fluff to ensure team members and customers know what matters and why. 

Steve Jobs sold Apple to investors, partners, and customers with inspiring storytelling, focused messaging, and simple visuals. He understood that technical jargon wasn’t as compelling as a straightforward acknowledgment of consumers’ needs and a simple explanation of his proposed solution.

Decision-making

Leaders gather insight, make the call, and take responsibility for the outcome. Indecision kills momentum, and those who wait for complete certainty will fall behind.

Jeff Bezos built Amazon’s culture around “disagree and commit,” meaning teams don’t have to reach a consensus on every decision. Once a call is made, everyone moves forward. Strong decision-makers adapt and adjust as needed.

Conflict resolution

Unspoken frustrations turn into resentment, which kills teamwork. When someone feels unheard or undervalued, they disengage. Good leaders create an environment where disagreements are aired early and handled directly. 

Ray Dalio built Bridgewater Associates around radical transparency, requiring employees to address issues openly rather than letting them fester. Leaders who navigate challenging conversations and mediate disagreements earn more trust than those who pretend everything is fine as is.

Leadership vs. management: Understanding the difference

Leadership and management require different mindsets. Strong leaders drive transformational change, whereas managers maintain stability.

Nadella again provides an ideal case study. When he became CEO of Microsoft, he shifted the company’s focus toward innovation and cloud computing. Meanwhile, strong project managers within the company kept daily operations running smoothly, allowing the company to execute Nadella’s vision. Both duties are essential.

To summarize the distinction between leadership and management:

  • Leadership paints a vision of the future. Leadership’s role is to inspire people toward a shared goal. Effective leaders cultivate trust, not compliance. 

  • Management ensures execution and efficiency, guiding teams toward organizational goals. A company without managers will be chaotic; a company without leaders will be directionless.

Best practices for leading a team

Outstanding leadership starts with clarity and accountability. Leaders set expectations, define roles, and remove roadblocks so teams can focus on meaningful work. As part of this process, they should foster a culture of ownership that gives team members autonomy while holding them accountable for results.

Here are more strategies for maximizing organizational success:

Set clear goals

A team without a goal is just a group of people working near each other. Leaders define the mission, the milestones, and the meaning behind the work. Practice SMART goal setting by ensuring goals fulfill the following criteria:

  • Specific: All initiatives should have precisely defined outputs.

  • Measurable: Objective metrics allow you to quantitatively gauge success.

  • Achievable: Goals should be possible, given your team’s resources and skills.

  • Relevant: Outputs must support the organization’s mission and vision.

  • Time-bound: A set timeframe keeps team members accountable and motivated.

Encourage feedback

Interdisciplinary collaboration between developers, designers, marketers, and executives helps teams find innovative solutions and weed out issues before they get out of hand. Leaders can also learn from each other, helping them gain an outside perspective.

Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar, built a culture where candid feedback was encouraged and essential to the creative process. At Pixar, directors and producers on each project regularly engage in the Braintrust, sharing their works in progress and soliciting constructive criticism. Instead of jumping straight to corrections and solutions, they seek to understand the issue and apply lessons learned throughout production. 

Elevate your leadership journey with Tempo

Effective leadership is about making decisions that build a better organization. Tempo can help you refine those decisions and track progress with real-time data and intelligent insights.

Tempo’s suite of solutions streamlines every step of your projects, from ideation to execution. Structure PPM tracks multiple projects and portfolios from one Jira-integrated dashboard. Meanwhile, Strategic Roadmaps helps you present a high-level vision that will resonate with team members and stakeholders. And Portfolio Manager enables you to predict project completion dates with near-perfect accuracy using predictive scheduling.

Whether you lead a startup or a global enterprise, Tempo keeps you and your team aligned and ahead of the curve. Get started now.

Explore More Content

Centralize real-time plans in one view

Structure and Gantt Charts

Gain a more complete project management solution, simplifying project reporting, improving collaboration, and ensuring projects stay on time and within budget.

Learn more

Jira Time Tracking

Timesheets by Tempo

#1 Jira Time Tracking & AI Apps: Log Tempo Timesheets for Planning, Project Management & Billing. Plugin Office365, Google & Slack

Go to marketplace
Colleagues interacting around a desk

No-Code Power BI Jira Integration

Power BI Connector for Jira

Effortlessly bridge Jira with your preferred BI tool, unlocking unparalleled insights and enhancing decision-making

Learn more

Strategic Portfolio Management

Strategic Portfolio Management

Modern modular PPM solutions that scale with your business. Align your teams with the integrated platform that bridges the gap between strategy and execution.

Learn more

Get the data you need to succeed

Time Tracker

Extend your Jira with prebuilt and highly configurable reports for straightforward time tracking.

Learn more

Monitor financial health at every level

Financial Manager for Timesheets

Monitor projects and portfolios to get simple, clear, and real-time views of your costs, budgets, and profits that can be shared throughout your entire organization.

Learn more

Align strategy and execution

Structure PPM and Strategic Roadmaps

For planning leaders looking to add a big-picture roadmap view to their structured Jira data, this integration is essential. Improve visibility to leadership, reduce reporting admin, and keep your team aligned.

Learn more

Roadmapping software for teams of all sizes

Strategic Roadmaps (Roadmunk)

The roadmapping tool designed for high-performing teams delivering boardroom-ready strategic roadmaps.

Learn more

No-code Tableau Jira integration

Tableau Connector for Jira

Effortlessly bridge Jira with Tableau, unlocking unparalleled insights and enhancing decision-making

Learn more

No more reporting limitations

Custom Charts for Confluence

Create and share all kinds of highly visual and customizable charts directly on your Confluence pages.

Learn more

Jira Team & Resource Management

Capacity Planner

#1 Jira Resource Management App: Optimize team allocation, skillset utilization, capacity planning & project management

Go to marketplace

Industry-leading project plan and roadmap visualizations with a Gantt chart extension

Gantt Charts for Structure PPM

Visualize project plans and roadmaps with a Gantt chart extension for Jira

Learn more

Real-time collaboration and capacity planning in Jira

Capacity Planner

A powerful team resource management tool designed to optimize capacity planning and project management in Jira

Learn more

Jira ITSM Solutions with Tempo

ITSM

Build and scale a custom ITSM solution at your own pace with Tempo's modular suite of integrated tools. Enhance Jira's capabilities and take control of your entire IT portfolio.

Learn more

Jira Portfolio Management PPM

Structure by Tempo

Jira Project Portfolio Management (PPM): Visualize data and manage projects within spreadsheet-like tables — in less than a minute

Go to marketplace

No-code BigQuery Jira integration

BigQuery Connector for Jira

Integrate Jira with Google BigQuery to seamlessly export and sync data for advanced analytics and customized reporting

Learn more

Take control of your projects

Portfolio Manager and Jira

Portfolio Manager integrates seamlessly with Jira to give you predictive scheduling, real-time scenario modeling, and advanced resource management – ensuring you stay on track, no matter what challenges arise.

Learn more

Time Tracking Software for Jira

Timesheets

Tempo’s intuitive automation and Jira-native design make it the most trusted time tracking tool for enterprise organization.

Learn more

Align your organization with proactive portfolio management

Portfolio Manager (LiquidPlanner)

Predictive scheduling and the ability to forecast project timelines and spot risks so you can meet deadlines with confidence.

Learn more

Custom charts and dashboards for Jira

Custom Charts for Jira

See how work is progressing and where blockers are with the most flexible reporting app in Jira.

Learn more

AI-enabled capacity visualization

Capacity Insights - Open Beta

Deliver visibility into how your team's time and efforts align with business objectives and project ROI - without the manual effort

Learn more

Project and program management for Jira

Structure PPM

Visualize all your Jira data & manage portfolios of projects in real-time.

Learn more

Unified time and team management

Timesheets and Capacity Planner

Seamlessly manage project timelines and resources while accurately tracking time spent on tasks. This integration enhances visibility, improves planning accuracy, and supports data-driven decision-making for better overall project outcomes.

Learn more

Powered by Structure’s custom hierarchies, visualize your roadmap, project plans, timeline & dependencies within Jira Gantt charts

Go to marketplace

Never lose track of a brilliant idea again

Idea Manager for Strategic Roadmaps

Never lose a brilliant idea again. Idea Manager for Strategic Roadmaps has built-in best practices to help.

Learn more

Jira Project Cost Tracking

Financial Manager

Project financial management for Jira & Timesheets. Monitor project costs, expenses, revenue, billing & budgets. Track Capex/Opex

Go to marketplace

Unified time and team management

Timesheets and Structure

Combining Tempo Timesheets and Structure PPM provides a unified view of time tracking and project progress, enabling more accurate reporting and effective portfolio management. Simplify workflows, enhance collaboration, and ensure projects stay on time and within budget.

Learn more

Agile at Scale Software

Agile at Scale

Adapt to changing business needs, rapidly adjust plans, and reallocate investment.

Learn more