When we think of leadership qualities, we generally think of the ability to rally the troops, a clarity of vision, and the willingness to coax the best work out of each team member. What we don't tend to think of is self-awareness. Self-awareness, in fact, has a certain new-age ring to it - what leader is lying on her hemp bedspread, staring at the ceiling and thinking deeply about whether she truly understands her innermost self?

When you think of good role models, businesses probably aren't your first thought but you may be surprised by the wisdom they have to offer. After all, we often learn a lot from their leaders. A select few can teach us quite a bit about how to have fruitful, happy and successful lives.

If you ever have to step up and manage people, it can be pretty difficult to figure out the best way to do it in a way that both works with your personality and gets the job done. This flowchart can help you figure out -- in broad categories, of course -- what type of leader you might be.

Over the last few weeks, I've been speaking with a number of senior IT managers and there seems to be a consensus that the pace of change, both in technology and the business, is starting to become overwhelming. By and large, these were experienced practitioners, often with two or more decades in senior IT roles so you'd think they be well-equipped to deal with whatever comes their way. But many seemed overwhelmed and were struggling to balance the need for 24/7 availability, highly secure systems and the ability to be flexible and pivot rapidly. What does it take to be a great CIO today?

Skills, experience and expertise are obviously important when it comes to moving forward in your career. That said, many employers look beyond those traits in a leader. According to a recent survey, the top trait they look for is integrity.

It's Star Trek's 50th anniversary, and while I could wax rhapsodic about the impact the show had on me in general, one thing that persists, even now, every day, is how much I learned how to be a good leader by watching Starfleet captains. Sometimes they were exceptional. Other times they really weren't. I always learned something.

Being a leader isn't just about barking orders at subordinates. It's not even about coming up with great ideas. Leadership is about helping people who work under you achieve more than what they thought was possible. Here are four tips to help you become the best leader you can be in your business.

There's a well-known adage that nine out of 10 start-ups fail. In my time at Leading Teams, my observation is that start-ups frequently fail in their early days, and fail for lots of reasons. But the one we typically don’t hear about is how the team play an important role in ensuring success. And yet CB insights cited that 'lacking the right team' was the third most important reason why start-ups fail, covering a quarter (23 per cent) of the 101 postmortems reviewed earlier this year. Having the dream team and establishing the right company culture is crucial for any start-up or small business to ensure its longevity. Here are few tips for those who want to get started.

As the holiday period winds down and people trickle back into work, business leaders should make employee engagement a top priority as they kick off the new year at work, according to a management expert. Here are some important questions for leaders to ask themselves in order to improve their relationships with their workers.

A strong leader knows that different team members often require different communication tactics, and the "DiSC" behaviour assessment system might help you speak everyone's language and get through to them.

When you know someone can be really defensive, it makes giving them any sort of constructive criticism a battle you'd probably rather avoid. If something needs to be said, it all depends on the clarity of your message and how you communicate it.

During a media Q and A session at Cisco Live 2015, new CEO Chuck Robbins was asked why he was looking outside the company to recruit some of his new leadership team. His answer was interesting and might give some insight as to why internal promotions aren't as common as we'd like.

"If you're making decisions, you're not leading" sounds like incredibly counter-intuitive advice. Aren't leaders supposed to be the ones who decide everything? Actually, those are called managers, and there's a difference.

A good leader knows how to communicate, and more importantly, a good leader knows how to address communication issues. These three simple questions will always keep you on top of your game.

There's more to shifting a billion dollars worth of Bolivian marching powder than just remembering not to sample your own wares.

In this reporting season it would be hard to find two companies more different than well-known Australian airline Qantas and retailing giant Myer.

Leadership is as much about knowing your weaknesses as it is about knowing your strengths. By knowing where your weak spots are and how to fill those gaps, you can truly become an effective leader.

It might seem like a contradiction -- managers are supposed to be authoritative, bold leaders, and shy people tend to hold back and be more reserved in conversation. Can shy leaders truly be effective? Absolutely; it just comes with a different set of challenges.

When you're a leader, your job is (in part) to deal with the issues that everyone who follows you is worried about. If you know there's an elephant in the room, be the first one to speak up about it.