Many organizations make the mistake of choosing the “next in line” for a promotion by determining how long the candidates have served the company. In some cases, it is appropriate to do so. But in a time where everything is as fast-paced as the internet and business needs and goals are ever-changing, it takes more than a veteran to keep things running smoothly. If you want to see your business succeed, you’ll need people who do the following:

2. Energize and Motivate – People with these qualities tend to ignite some sort of fire in the people around them. These people are great in a team project, where tension and obstacles are plenty. They manage to pull the project through to the end, with everyone intact.

3. Stay Calm in Crises – When problems arise or things go haywire, people have a natural tendency to look for the most stable object in their relative environment. The person in the least amount of panic ends up being that object. They calm people down by just being calm themselves, and are easier to collaborate with so the group can overcome the issue at hand.

4. Take Responsibility for Their Actions – We’ve all experienced people who have tried to escape blame for something that went wrong, perhaps we’ve even played that role before ourselves. But good leaders have a tendency to let people know what went wrong, evaluate it, and rework the strategy so that it produces better results next time. Instead of kicking around wayside, they take the initiative to get the job done right.

5. Give Credit Where Credit is Due – In a workplace setting, it’s difficult for some people to praise a co-worker when they do a great job. Many people feel as though they are in competition with co-workers, but leader types will often acknowledge input from each team member. They recognize that one individual cannot be entirely responsible for their own success, and understand that each career achievement is, in part, a result of someone else’s contribution.

6. Remain Comfortable in Non-Leadership Roles – This may sound like a contradiction to the point here, but good leaders are able to go outside their normal realm of work and be the back-up team. These are the IT people who agreed to help put together a cashflow statement for the last fiscal year, because if for no other reason, they can use their leadership qualities to make a positive impact on the project.

7. Accept Challenging Roles – These people put ideas on the table and make the decisions to either jump on them or scrap them. In a management position, it is essential to be able to make difficult decisions with confidence and purpose.

8. Influence Their Co-workers – Having the ability to encourage people as opposed to directing them from an authoritarian role is a quality that is both rare and advantageous. It makes employees feel empowered and responsible to do what is asked for someone who has taken the time to relate to them.

9. Reflect on Their Strengths and Weaknesses – Good leaders will take the time to assess their progress and determine where their strengths lie, and where their weaknesses have come up. They will often see their weaknesses as opportunities for improvement, either for them to improve upon personally or to allow someone else to step up and help achieve prospective goals.

10. Evolve with Needs and Expectations – The only thing constant in our world is change, and a leader’s ability to adapt to their surroundings has a huge impact on the success of a business, and its sustainability.

All of these traits are timeless and non-discriminative of age, gender, or otherwise. The time an employee puts into a company is invaluable, but when it comes time for someone's promotion, you should push yourself to consider, “Is this person being promoted because they have the drive and skill-set to excel in this new position, or are they being promoted because they’ve invested 7 years with our company and there’s nowhere else to go but up?” You may come to realize that the person you plan to promote is not comfortable with the new set of responsibilities, but feels entitled to the accompanying increase in pay. Promoting them may set them up for failure, or take away from the reasons the employee stayed with the company to begin with.

Choosing leaders who have fine-tuned these attributes are far more likely to succeed and push your business to do the same. These people are not always aware of their leadership qualities, but because of their ability to do all of the above, changing their responsibilities and  may be a challenge they are willing to take on.

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