What makes great leaders great? 20 features great leaders must have A question that so many have tried to answer. Whether we are talking about politics or business or whatever, the ingredients of great leadership are basically the same. However, if you ask 100 people this simple question, the fact is, you will probably get so many different answers to the extent that will make it difficult to draw common themes. It’s really amazing how views can differ when it comes to leadership effectiveness. Some people will talk about charisma; others will mention experience and the-know-how, yet others will relate to some vague things like being a strong personality or being trust worthy, etc. However, very few can really explain clearly what do they mean by a strong personality, does this relate by any means to an authoritative leadership style? Very few either can explain what makes a leader trust worthy. Definitely, people are not born trust worthy, they have to exhibit certain behaviors to gain such trust worthiness. On the other hand, lots of research has been conducted in this regard and definitely many common findings have been drawn. However, the aim of this article is to summarize the most important traits of great leaders based on real life observations and personal experiences rather than academic research. Needless to say, we can end up with an endless list of traits that are commonly seen in great leaders but the aim here is not to create an exhaustive list (such list simply does not exist) but rather to focus on the must have traits and not the nice to have ones. For instance, it is definitely very nice for a leader to be charismatic but is it a must have? The fact is that many very successful CEO’s are not charismatic at all. They just seem to be very ordinary people; however, in terms of leadership they are definitely great. So let us focus here on what we believe are the must have’s Great leaders are trusted by their people: this seems to be one of the most obvious traits of great leaders. They are simply trusted but then the question should be how and why they acquire such trust. Yes this is pretty much acquired and not just a gift from god. They are trusted simply because they are honest and transparent. They don’t lie to their people and they don’t hide information from them unless it’s really confidential. They don’t give fake reasons for what is happening and they don’t decorate the truth. They just call things with its real names. A great leader who doesn’t want to promote someone because he doesn’t see he’s got the necessary skills for the role would be honest about it and will give such feedback straight in the face rather than giving fake excuses such as , we don’t have the headcount, and such similar excuses that eventually lead to mounting frustration and loss of credibility and trust Great leaders are great communicators: they believe in the importance of communication. They are keen on both the quality and quantity of their communication with their teams. They communicate relentlessly and they don’t get sick of it. Such communication pattern makes them very visible to their teams. A leader who keeps himself locked up in his office away from his people most of the time will never be able to achieve anything great. Organizations are simply collections of people and people cannot stay engaged and motivated without ample communication coming from the top Great leaders are very much self-aware: they know exactly their areas of strength but also their areas of weaknesses. After all, they are just human beings. A leader is not by any means a superman. He must have his own weaknesses. The biggest strength is to be aware of such weaknesses and either work on improving such deficiencies or choose people who can complement the leader by filling any gaps created by the leader’s own weaknesses. Self-awareness is recognized nowadays as a very important ingredient of the so-called emotional intelligence and hence we can dare say that great leaders must have a high EQ rather than a high IQ Great leaders are confident yet modest: the importance of confidence in a leader is quite obvious. No one will like to be led by a leader who does not believe in himself. Confidence is quite contagious and likewise the lack of it is also so. On the other hand, arrogance is quite repulsive and will not enable a leader to connect with his people. Arrogance can definitely keep a leader distant, aloof and isolated. A great leader then needs to strike a good balance between confidence and modesty Great leaders are always optimistic: Napoleon once said that leaders are dealers in hope and Churchill saw that the fundamental function of leaders is to keep hope alive. This is so true. It would be very difficult to imagine a great leader who is pessimistic. Great leaders never lose hope in the future; they always see the full half of the cup. Needless to say, this does not mean they are not realistic. In fact, they have to be indeed. However, there is no such contradiction between being optimistic and realistic in the same time. An optimistic leader will keep searching for the positives and building on them whilst not losing sight of the challenges and barriers ahead. He just believes in the unlimited abilities of mankind and hence can lead his team towards achievements they never thought were possible Great leaders enjoy people: it’s not enough for a leader to be people oriented or to believe in the crucial role of people in an organization’s success. Great leaders have to be passionate about people. In other words, they have to enjoy dealing with people, tolerating them and solving their problems. They have to enjoy dealing with human complexity, people differences, diversity and emotions. Managing people is probably the most challenging and most fundamental task for any leader. If they don’t enjoy the core of the job they can never achieve greatness in such a job. Great leaders must have a vision: having a vision is sometimes described as the ability to see the invisible. Leaders must have a certain dream which they manage to turn into a specific and clear vision that can be clearly articulated to their people. Great leaders not only have a vision but they can sell it to their people. They can drive them to believe in such a vision. Once this happens, strategies and plans should all be set to turn the vision into a reality. It’s quite impossible to think of a leader achieving something great without having such vision in the first place. As they say, if you don’t know which shore you are heading to, no wind is a good wind. Great leaders adopt different leadership styles in different situations: the concept of situational leadership is quite a familiar one and definitely one of the key success factors for a leader is his/her ability to adopt different styles of leadership according to the situation and according to the people he/she is dealing with. At times of crisis, there is no room for the participation of everyone in the decision making. The leader has to take decisions quickly without prolonged discussions or thinking. Hence, an effective leader put in a situation of crisis can be pretty much a dictator. However, at normal times a great leader will adopt a mix of different styles such as the visionary, the participative, the coaching and the pace setting. In addition, the leadership style must vary depending on the skill and will of the followers. If both are high, this person needs to be delegated. If the skills are high but the will level is low this person needs to be supported. If the will is high but the skills are still low this person needs to be coached while if both are low the person needs to be directed. Great leaders are fair and objective: it is extremely crucial for a leader to show fairness at all times. Failure to do so will cost him his credibility and people’s trust in him. Moreover, he/she has to show that emotions or subjectivity do not play any role in his/her decisions. A leader after all is just another human being. He’s got emotions and like any normal human being can like certain people more than others for reasons that are not necessarily related to work, sometimes what we refer to as chemistry. This by itself is not a sin and it’s quite normal. The sin though would be to let such personal chemistry interfere with professional decisions such as decisions on promotions. Great leaders always manage to put any emotions aside, eliminate any subjective elements from their decision making process and take decisions only based on solid objective and professional criteria Great leaders are not afraid to take difficult decisions and to be held accountable for the results: any leader at some point will find himself/herself in a situation where he/she should take a difficult decision, sometimes a decision that he hates to take. Firing a poor performer for instance is typically one of those tough decisions to make especially when the employee is a long serving one and is someone with family obligations and little chance to get another job. However, great leaders look at the bigger picture. Tolerating a poor performer for so long is not only a burden on the company’s resources but it demoralizes top performers as well when they see that poor performers can still keep their jobs. Moreover, a poor performer in each department can ruin the culture of the organization as it gives the impression that the company is quite tolerant with sloppy work. No one will ever believe it then when the management speaks about fostering a culture of high performance standards. Hence, tolerating a poor performer for emotional or what could be seen as human reasons can have an organization wide impact. The leader should always remember that he is a guardian appointed by shareholders to grow and protect their investments as well as guard the company’s reputation. Tolerating poor performers for long is definitely not in the interest of shareholders, customers, majority of employees and the organization overall. In addition, replacing a poor performer will create an opportunity for someone else more deserving of the job. Great leaders are never micromanagers: they are very much results oriented but they allow a lot of freedom to their teams on which route they follow to achieve the desired outcomes. They think of the big picture and spend significant time in discussing and developing key strategies but they don’t waste their time interfering in minor details. They are never hesitant to delegate tasks and missions to the right people and they are never control freaks. They willingly concede power and authority to their subordinates to allow better work flow and also to empower and develop others. They are neither hands-off all of the time nor hands-on all of the time. They just know when to be hands-on and when to be hands-off. Great leaders give credit and acknowledge others efforts: they are keen to give credit where it really belongs not to themselves. They always recognize and acknowledge others efforts. Pats on the shoulder or a well done note, whether verbal or written, are simple gestures yet are very powerful in motivating employees. Let alone more formal and sophisticated ways of recognition which they believe in and use as well. Great leaders admit mistakes: they have the courage to speak out loudly and say “I was wrong and someone else was right”, “I admit it was my mistake”. They see nothing wrong in this; on the contrary, they see this as a sign of courage, self awareness, fairness and strength. Actually, this is exactly how their subordinates see it as well and it’s definitely one of the traits that make them so much admirable and respected among their people. Nothing is worse than a boss who is always right. Great leaders don’t manage by fear: first of all they rely on building trust with their people, second, they behave to gain respect and admiration. Once this is achieved, they do not need to induce fear or panic among their people to get things done. If they are respected, trusted and admired people would like to be led by them not for fear of punishment but for sake of rewards, both intangible and tangible ones. The former include respect and trust from the leader towards the employee. The later include all tangible forms of recognition such as promotions, financial incentives or simply a letter of appreciation. Great leaders never see themselves as the know-it-all boss: they understand very well that no one knows everything. They know that they need others to complement them. They acknowledge the fact that they cannot achieve anything by themselves. Moreover, they have the courage to simply say “I don’t know” when they don’t know. In such cases, they know whom they should rely on to answer the unanswered question. It’s definitely not the job of a leader to have the answer for every question. They hire people to do things, solve problems and answer questions so it’s part of their success formula to get people deliver what they were hired for. Great leaders are so keen on developing others: as Tom Peters put it simply “Leaders create leaders not followers”. This is exactly how great leaders are. The ultimate failure for a leader is not finding a successor for him from within the organization that he led for several years when he decides to quit. Great leaders believe so much in the value and importance of people development at all levels. They dedicate significant resources for this purpose and they never view it as a luxury. All leaders brag about the notoriously abused cliché “People are our most valuable asset”. Great leaders though never fail to turn such cliché into tangible strategies, action plans and tactics. Great leaders take risks: they are never too cautious. They never play it safe all the time. They are not afraid to take risks when indicated. This doesn’t mean they are reckless. It just means that they take well calculated risks from time to time. This could be a new and bold idea, a risky merger or acquisition, a new product that raises some important doubts or changing a long standing strategy. Moreover, they hold themselves accountable for the results whatever these could be and if the risky path leads to a failure they quickly stand up again and lead their organization to soon bring it back on the right track. Great leaders develop themselves: not only they are keen on developing others but they are so keen on developing themselves as well. They believe in continuous learning and no matter how old and experienced they are, they genuinely believe that they will keep on learning till the very last day of their lives. Part of their belief in self development is their willingness to adopt new ideas. They are never afraid of getting rid of an old idea or an old way of doing something even if it is tried a thousand times with success. They believe that the world is changing rapidly and that no strategy, tactic or approach can work at all times. They believe that innovation is crucial for survival and that to innovate one doesn’t necessarily need to come up with a very new and unique idea. Innovation sometimes can simply be quitting old ways of doing things or getting rid of an old idea that has become obsolete or irrelevant to the current circumstances. Great leaders are great listeners: they listen very well to others not with the intent of just listening but with the intent of really trying to understand what the others have got to say. They really apply the 1st of Stephen Covey’s seven habits: seek to understand before being understood. Not only they engage their people and ask for their opinion in different matters but they really value such opinions. They believe that subordinates can definitely see things the leader cannot see or at least can see things differently. A leader no matter how clever and vigilant he is can never be aware of everything happening around every corner in his organization. Listening to others can definitely increase his scope of awareness which makes his decisions better informed and more accurate. Moreover, listening is a sign of respect and trust and one of the key things that keeps people engaged and motivated. Great leaders seek feedback and reflect: because they are self aware and keen on self development, they proactively seek feedback not only from their superiors but from their subordinates as well. They believe that feedback is crucial for their improvement and for the progress of their organization. They also believe that it is very important and useful to make the employees voice heard through different channels including face to face feedback. They encourage their people to be honest and candid and not to be afraid of speaking their minds. Moreover, they reflect a lot. They reflect on the feedback they receive, they reflect on things that went wrong, they seek input from their people on areas of improvement and failures of the past and how these could be avoided in the future.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 11:05:36 +0000