Here are the six powerful habits of effective leaders

By Amrita Premrajan, TimesJobs.com
Vineeta Tikekar, vice-president, marketing & communications, Sodexo India On-site Services, lists the key traits for an effective leader to TimesJobs.com:

1. Vision: The first step for individuals to emerge into a leadership position starts with having a vision and sharing that vision and inspiring others.

2. Persistence: To turn the vision into reality, persistence and grit are the key drivers.

3. Collaboration: Successful completion of a project or a task relies upon inputs from multiple people at different levels in an organisation. Being in a leadership position, one must collaborate and work with peers and teams at every step to see the desired outcome.

4. Positivity: Although this may sound simple when things are looking up, as a leader, one needs to have a positive attitude even when things go wrong. A leader is tested in these tough times and it is important to pick up the pieces and start again, motivate the team, design a new approach or work on a new strategy if need be and continue to work towards achieving excellence.

5. Ambition: To deliver greater economic value for the organisation, people in leadership positions need to have a hunger to achieve bigger things for themselves as well as for the organisation.

6. Lead by example: Employees look up to their leaders in an organisation and aspire to be in leadership roles some day. In order to be a leader who inspires others, one must practice what one preaches every day and be mindful of one's actions and create a community of shared purpose.