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Which of these characteristics is the most dangerous leadership trait?

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Leadership

SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter.

Last week, we asked: Which of these characteristics is the most dangerous leadership trait?

  • Excessively ambitious: 6.53%
  • Being short-tempered: 13.46%
  • Indecisiveness and over-cautiousness: 32.3%
  • Lack of vision: 22.02%
  • Selfishness: 25.69%

Dangerous Traits. From the looks of it, folks find short-sighted, indecisive, selfish leaders to be the worst of all.  Each has its risks.  You must remember your role as a leader is to put others before yourself, set direction for them, and make the difficult calls that others are afraid to make.  If these things make you uncomfortable, either build your skills in this arena or seek a role with less responsibility.  One key to your development is first understanding what kind of leader you are.  Once you understand that, you’ll be better equipped to build the relevant skills.

Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and author of “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”