Close your eyes and imagine a leader. Did you think of a general? The president? It’s not unusual to associate leadership with power, but to gauge effective leadership, I’d argue that power will only take you so far on the battlefield, in the Oval Office, and, yes, even in the workplace. In order to achieve sustainable success, managers need to embrace a humanistic model, which emphasizes compassion, the value of each individual, and respect.

Here are five personality traits that I believe are key to humanistic leadership:

1. Openness and Friendliness. People appreciate and will react more positively when they can trust their leader, communicate in an open way, and not fear of saying the wrong thing.

The humanistic leader is sociable, easy to talk, and relatable.

2. Kindness. All people respond well to others who are cheerful, nice, and seem to put others first.

The humanistic leader can be trusted.

3. Thoughtfulness. People are able to enjoy their work more and, thus, are more productive when their leader respects and incorporates their views.

The humanistic leader shows empathy and is able to put themselves into the shoes of the people they lead.

4. Emotional Stability. Emotions at work shift throughout the day, and people expect their leader to be stable emotionally throughout the day.

The humanistic leader is emotionally resilient.

5. Creativity. People require new ideas and insight from their leaders to thrive at work.

Humanistic leaders are capable of thinking from different perspectives, systems thinkers, deep thinkers, and full of imagination and new possibilities!

The shortest path to success in leadership is the humanistic approach.

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