Essential Skill and Trait Set of Successful Leaders

Adaptability: It means adapting to an unknown group, situation, physical conditions and

environment.

Alertness: Being mentally present, highly observant and a good listener and responsive to inputs
and tasks/ questions.

Boldness: To be able to project views without hesitation and bold enough to accept others’
communications.

Confidence: It is the conviction based on knowledge, experience and logic expressed verbally and in
actions.

Cooperation: it is cooperating with others to move towards the final solution. This may require some
give and take adjustments in own ideas as well as collective efforts. It also entails bringing on board
those who are of different views.

Courage: It is a stark physical action that entails some risk-taking. It is the calculated risk.

Determination: This is the ability to achieve intended objectives despite hardships and reverses,
modification and an offensive spirit.

Discipline: It is about taking all actions that are required to be taken on time and at the required
place and in a required manner and not do anything that is not legally and morally acceptable.

Attitude: It involves Positiveness in own thinking, accepting that there could be divergent views and
criticism, Has open-mindedness and an ability to pick up the valuable entities from a mix of
unacceptable inputs of others. This also has practical approach and unending pleasantness despite
the harsh treatment and has unending faith and a strong hope of reaching the final goals.

Creative Thinking: It involves thinking out of the box to arrive at solutions. It has to be practical and
doable way of solving a problem or planning a different approach.

Communications: This is the uncorrupted translation of ideas into verbal or written or action-based
expressions that leave no ambiguity in the minds of the recipients. This requires brevity, clarity,
accuracy and acceptable transmission.

Energy: It is the body’s ability to continue doing any work – verbal or action based, untiringly despite
hardships. It is seen in the form of body language too and has the ability to be contagious and
motivating to own self and others.

Flexibility: It is the ability of quickly modifying ideas, plans, views and resource utilization taking the
best advantage of emerging situation.

Loyalty: Ability to stand by own team/ group under all circumstances, without compromising the
group or its individual members.

Initiative: Ability to initiate ideas and plans to make the ideas work and involves verbal expressions
as well as plan implementation.

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• Apart from all the above traits, the SSB expects a good sociability from the candidates. It
means, the ability to relate to the society within the framework of acceptable social norms.
 It also means proactive communications, the ability to understand others and the problems
that individuals and groups face and the strength to solve them.

• The SSB expects a leader to be a balanced personality and without any radical behavior. It
expects the candidates to display correct etiquettes and manners and the ability to express
non-agreements in a non-hurting manner.

• The Board expects a candidate to show team spirit that not only includes cooperation and
loyalty, but also an attitude of the group goals as greater than individual goals and without
the eagerness to prove others wrong.