Do you know what it takes to be an emerging leader? There are 3 types of people in this business: alphas, pre-alphas, and betas. This is according to Mike Dillard's "Magnetic Sponsoring". The transition from beta to alpha is really one of the foundational keys to success in our industry, and that phase is emerging leadership.
When you go in to business for yourself, it is the beginnings of emerging leadership. Becoming an entrepreneur is really an acceptance that you are going in to a lifetime study of developing in to that role of dominance that will dictate your success. And for all intensive purposes, there are 7 attributes that I've discovered that are apparent in all people who exude emerging leadership.
1) Accountability
Emerging leadership is about taking on the burden of team success upon himself or herself. This attribute is a top quality because it means that the individual cares about the outcome, because it is a matter of pride. Accountability is the willingness to take on responsibility and be held liable for it. It's what emerging leaders do: they aren't afraid to step and stick their heads out if it means an opportunity to change outcomes.
2) Visionary
Study the best and most successful leaders in business, and you will see that one way or another, they are visionaries. They came up with an image of what they expected, and they were able to create excitement throughout their organization to join him in the pursuit of that vision. They are labeled as the dreamers, and they executed the necessary actions to make that visualization a reality.
3) Integrity
Emerging leadership has an inherent quality of integrity that is apparent in all the actions that this leader takes. It requires an understanding that choosing the road that is less ethical will only result in greater repercussions at a later point. This is in addition to the fact that being less ethical in practice will jeopardize brand reputation; a brand that was built on sweat equity and valuable time investment. It would be a shame to see it go to waste.
4) Action-oriented
Emerging leadership models purport that leaders are ones who do more action-oriented tasks than verbal ones. Don't get me wrong; a role of emerging leadership is to figure out methods to inspire action. But most of the time, an emerging leader will go out and get things done and bring results back to the team so that they can believe that the talk is completely backed up by the walk.
5) Never give up
Persistence is the result of a commitment and belief in your vision. Because emerging leaders aspire for their vision, they will strive to conquer what they set forth. They won't allow the scrutiny of others or the pains of reality to deter them from realizing their dreams. The best ones are always the ones who buy in to their company 100% and really believe that they have the best company out there.
Be passionate about your craft!
6) 100% effort
When was the last time you saw an entrepreneur half-heartedly do something that involved their business? More like NEVER. They know that emerging leadership is about completely vesting in their success and not taking actions for granted. They understand that every result-producing activity they do has some sort of future benefit to their business, so they won't allow themselves to delay their inevitable success.
7) Always learning
Even the most successful leaders in this industry and top money earners will tell you that learning is a never-ending attribute. For emerging leadership, it's an absolute must.
You started off as a new business owner, and the way you became an emerging leader was to learn and study how the best do it. Now that you are establishing your business and you've gotten the hang of what is needed to be a leader, you now must invest in learning how to MASTER your skill sets. It's the most efficient way to make the transition in to becoming an "alpha" in your business.