Introduction As a project management professional, the feeling of having the power to act on behalf of my organization is sometimes intimidating. My organization's mission is clear: it is the process that moves the entire team in the right direction to achieve goals. Most team members do not feel empowered or encouraged to collaborate and firmly believe that external influences actually affect team members' abilities to complete the task at hand. In this article I will explain some of the characteristics that make a great team leader, describe my experience when I first came on board as a Project Manager for a newly formed division, share self-improvement methods, and address the steps and methods in pre-activity readings provided. Leadership Traits Leadership involves unifying a group of people to strive towards a common goal. Leadership also involves recognizing the different needs and motivations of one's followers and elevating each other to higher levels (Goertzen, 2009). As a leader, you should have the ability to recognize followers as individual members, make them aware of results, inspire them to be the best, and at the same time instill in them a sense of teamwork that transcends the needs of any one person. they recognize several traits in leaders they consider authentic, including transparency and integrity. This involves disclosing information about one's limitations and the impact they will have on the organization, which demonstrates the leader's responsibility (Lombard, et al., 2012). Transparency also involves open discussions about ethical dilemmas. By involving the entire team in discussing how internal and external communication will affect the image of the new d...... middle of paper ...... leading to confusion and duplication of effort. This affects morale and the workforce, low morale leads to reduced effort and productivity, therefore preventing the team from getting the “A”. References Avolio, B.J., & Gardner, W.L. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 16 (3), 315-338. George, B., Sims, P., McLean, A. N. and Mayer, D., (2007) Discovering your authentic leadership. Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation Goertzen, B.J. Contemporary Theories of Leadership. Jones & Barlett LearningLombard, L., April. K&Peters. K. (2012) Sustainability and authentic leadership: obstacles and enablers. Crown Research in Education Volume 2, Issue 2, pp 74-84 Ashridge Business School Treasurer, B. (2009) Courageous Leadership: Modeling the Way. John Wiley and son. Inc