Identifying and growing Leaders
summary
Leaders should always be looking for and mentoring new leaders. Determining a list of attributes that you believe are the best predictors to a potential leader’s success is key to this process as is figuring which of these attributes can be developed or mentored vs just need to already be part of the person’s emotional intelligence (EQ). A leader’s success can directly be measured by the motivation and accomplishments of the people they lead.
“Management is about persuading people to do things they do not want to do, while leadership is about inspiring people to do things they never thought they could.”
Issue
Leaders and management should constantly be on the look out for new leaders—either as part of succession planning or to enable organizational growth. Figuring out which key attributes help determine a potential leader’s success is key here—as these can be used as filters for candidates.
Many articles exist on leaders, leadership, managers, and management—often times contrasting leaders and managers. I’ve read and heard both of these sayings:
“Not all managers are leaders, but all leaders are managers”
“You can be a leader without being a manager but you can’t be a manager without being a leader”
Which one is right and does it matter? I personally believe the second one is more accurate—however, when hiring, I look for leaders that can also manage. Leaders and Managers tend to be more comfortable in one role or the other but it’s worth it to find someone who is passionate about both! When it really comes down to it, the measure of a great leader or manager has little to do with how you define their role and much more about their actual impact on others, right?
leadership attributes
We could spend hours discussing and debating which attributes are necessary or most important for great leaders, but, for the sake of this post, I’ll suggest the following attributes that I believe a person needs to have to some degree to be a great leader. I’ll also suggest a few attributes that I believe can be taught, developed, and/or mentored along the way.
I believe some level of these need to be there from the start (this is a daunting list!) and can be strengthened over time.
Passionate / Enthusiastic / Confident / Charismatic - being well-spoken, approachable, and friendly; infusing energy, contributing, and showing positive attitudes and feelings for the company, goals, work, products, successes, and even failures.
Communicator/ Motivator / Inspiring - able to instantly relate with all levels of workers, to ask great questions, to be a truly good listener, a good instructor, showing a positive, can-do attitude, rolling up their sleeves to help get things done, and giving praise to everyone involved.
Visionary - clearly laying out the big picture as well as the strategies to achieve it so team members understand where they and their work fit and provide value to the greater cause.
Empathetic - genuinely relating to those around them and feeling their pain as well as their joys—this enables a leader to address issues faster and with more precision.
Open-minded - a person who is inquisitive by nature and can look at the best lessons of the past and present while being open to the future ideas of anyone around them.
Listener - making people comfortable enough to share, then taking the time to attentively listen to every person on the team or company and then doing something with what they heard.
Humble / Appreciative - a willingness to admit mistakes and make amends, able to accept help from others, acknowledging everything anybody else does to make them successful.
Trusting / Loyal - ability to trust in the potential of all team members and to achieve success through them, standing up for the team in crisis and conflict, making sure they all get proper credit for their successes.
Honest / Integrity - giving proper credit for work done by others, acknowledging mistakes, sticking to their values and core beliefs, their commitment to doing the right thing, even when it’s unpopular or tough to do so.
Accountable - making sure promised things are delivered, praising those who do well and confronting and working with those who don’t.
Problem Solver / Decisive - able to assess challenges, finding possible solutions and consequences, and then with advice from trusted team members, fearlessly being willing to select the best possible solution based on known information at the time.
I believe these can be taught, developed, mentored over time:
Perspective - ability to see the big picture instead of becoming lost in the details—always able see the end objective in sight.
Transparency - being as open with information and decisions as possible is one of the quickest ways to get employee feedback and earn trust.
Empowerment / Delegation - when people are empowered with proper guidance and limits, their intelligence and talents are unleashed to help the organization, trust is built and the leader is left to focus on key responsibilities.
Diplomat / Impartial - ability to diffuse difficult situations, keeping the team working towards a common goal despite individual differences.
Influential - the ability to lead through influence rather than authority requires emotional intelligence, effective communication, negotiation, and consensus building skills and can be extremely helpful to a leader.
“An employee’s motivation is a direct result of the sum of interactions with his or her manager”
How do you measure a Leader’s success?
I think the quote from Bob Nelson says it all! A leader’s success can directly be measured by the motivation and accomplishments of the people they lead. Great leaders exceed expectations through their teams. Poor managers have trouble keeping their teams together, let alone actually accomplishing the goals put before them. In my experience, the best measure of a leader/manager is the number of people who ask to work for them!
references
Forbes - Why All Managers Must be Leaders
Fast Company - Are you a Leader or a Manager?
6Q Blog - Difference between Manager and Leader
Forbes - 8 Essential Qualities of Great Leadership