Do you have the drive to be the best leader you can

So you want to be a better leader, then lets consider one of the fundamental attributes of a leader - drive!
Leaders tend to share four basic areas of drive:

1. Bonding,
2. Defending,
3. Acquiring, and
4. Learning.

Bonding: Good leaders want to bond with others, it is a basic need and makes us feel good to be part of a social relationship and successfully work with others. Through bonding we develop partnerships and friendships, these relationships then encourage us to act in a fair and respectful manner with those we deal with.

Defending: As leaders we will be pasionate to protect any areas we feel close too, these may be our possesions, position or friendships. If we feel these are threatened or particularly our self-image or our self-beliefs are, we will become angry and defend our positions. We need to acknowledge this need for defence and pause to consider the most approapriate action and not "fly off the handle".

Acquiring: Leaders have an urge to acquire, this may be material things for some, it may be that management role that comes with certain perks, it may mean knowledge or information for others. What drives a leader to acquire is not important, how he or she acts is the important part, in some areas it may mean to be aggressive and fight for that extra sales, while in other areas it may mean spending time to develop a more detailed understanding. From our own perspective it is important to understand our motivation and what our goal is, but it is equally important to understand our bosses and our subordinates position. Understanding what drives a person's acquisition self will help us to deal with them at their level and see their motivators.

Learning: Leaders have an in-built curiosity - a need to learn, about where they are, where they want to be and how to get there. Learning is linked to an early post where I said leaders desire to innovate and to develop new and better systems to aid their end goal.

So, do we have the drive to be better leaders, to understand our motivations so we can lead our teams to better successes in the future.