What makes a good leader?

Leadership development

Ever since we started Impact Factory, lo these many years ago, we have struggled with the whole notion of leadership development or leadership training. Indeed, we have resisted writing about it in much detail because the subject is so subjective.

Are leaders born or made? Can you use management leadership training to give leadership skills to someone who isn’t leadership material? How is it done?

Given that we’re being asked to create a lot more leadership programmes of late, we decided we’d take a hard look at just what makes a good leader.

Even of you don’t think of yourself as a leader, you will have areas in your life where other people look to you for leadership. So here are some essentials qualities and skills you need to be a good leader in whatever leadership arena you’re in.

Leadership training

Training is a misnomer when applied to leadership. Any leadership development programme has to include at least a passing reference to the following

Introduction to the concept of leadership behaviours
Discussion and debate about leadership
A widening of the definition beyond traditional leadership stereotypes
Personal understanding of individual leadership qualities and strengths
The difference between leadership and management
A look at how people perceive, their perception is their reality
Assumptions and their effect on how people see the world
What are your terms of reference and seeing the bigger picture
Personal patterns and beliefs
A look at the elements that have influenced and shaped the participants
Establishing ownership of individual’s leadership behaviours

A programme needs to be designed around the development of the individuals involved rather than towards competencies identified as required by the organisation.

Leadership style

What does a leader look like?

No cookie cutter models here. Everyone can develop their capacity to lead, from church committees to local pressure groups to business teams to political parties. When someone is committed to, and practises using their leadership capabilities at all levels in their life, then they can and will develop their own potential as a leader.

There is a tendency, in our Western culture, to see Leadership as synonymous with white, middle class, male, in charge. There’s a kind of unspoken template of what leadership is supposed to look like. Now we know that isn’t true. Leadership can and does come in many different shapes and forms.

Good leaders don’t conform to a template. Indeed, leaders are people who don’t usually follow the party line. They have an edge to them, they get up people’s noses sometimes, they make decisions – lots of them – that often others don’t like. They say the things that need saying in a way that others understand.

Don’t let the picture get in the way

However, it is important to acknowledge that people developing their leadership skills are often hampered by their picture (or other people’s picture) of what a leader is supposed to ‘look’ like.

This is when it’s important to understand that the role of leader is not only completely individual (remember, they don’t fit a mould!) but also has to be worked at with belief and will and determination by the person occupying it.

It’s different for everyone

Not only that, leaders will be experienced differently by the individual people they lead. One getting encouragement, another understanding. That, of course, will be due to the leader’s ability to see what each person needs (more on this later).

In addition, not every leader is going to be a great leader in the sense that the world around them acknowledges their leader status. Many leaders get no ‘public’ recognition, only their personal satisfaction of a job well done.

Leadership theory

Seeing the Big Picture Vision

When the ‘vision’ word is used it usually means that someone has an idea of what the future could look like and a plan to get there. No point painting rosy, pie in the sky pictures (‘we’ll double our turnover in a year; we’ll create international markets; we’ll be number one in the UK’, etc.) if pie in the sky is all they are.

More like, ‘we could double our turnover in a year, this is how we could get there, this is what I expect from everyone in the organisation to help us get there and any new ideas are welcome’.

The ability to see

There is one essential quality for anyone in any position of leadership: the ability to see what is going on. Seeing is clarity. Seeing in the ‘wood for the trees’ kind of way.

We’ve heard the following phrase from a number of people throughout the years and it’s a good one – get your attention off yourself and on to whatever is going on.

What you’ll see

Here’s what you’ll be able to see if you do that: you’ll be able to see things from other people’s points of view; you’ll be able to understand what’s going on for them. You’ll be able to see what other people are capable of and how to help them achieve it. Most importantly, you’ll be able to see the whole picture not just your little bit of it.

Leadership skills

What makes you tick?

Know thyself. To be able to see you need a clear understanding of what has made you the way you are and what has shaped and influenced your life. The clearer you are about what motivates and affects your behaviour, the clearer you will be able to see what is going on with other people.

You didn’t spring fully formed from Zeus’s head – many things have affected you over the years. A good leader is proud to acknowledge role models, people, places, things, etc, which have inspired them.

You can’t do it alone

Any good leader worth their salt should be able to name 100 people, places, things, right off the bat. Why? Because they know themselves well enough to acknowledge who has supported and inspired them along the way, and what support they still need to get things done.

Leadership quality

Qualities

Think about what qualities your role models have that are attractive to you, that make them inspiring. Now, putting aside modesty, false or otherwise, think about what qualities they have that you also have. You have to know who you are and accept that you have outstanding qualities – leaders are able to do that.

Beliefs, rules and patterns

How well do you understand the rules, beliefs and patterns you have created in your life so far? Everyone’s got ‘em.

They can be the simple kind of rule – you should brush your teeth twice a day. They can be the more complex kind – you should treat everyone the way you expect to be treated. Beliefs can be things like – I believe everyone should be fair. And patterns can be as simple as going to and from work the same way every day.

When identifying your rules, patterns and beliefs see if you can avoid putting a value judgement on whether they are good or bad; this is far more about seeing just how well you understand your own behaviour.

Leadership management

Moving things forward Innovative thinking

Leadership requires innovative thinking; it requires people making positive and inspiring impacts; and it requires them to be able to motivate others. What is needed is an ability to think and act ‘out of the box’; out of the accepted or ‘right’ ways of doing things.

The culture of tomorrow will be one where change and innovation are the order of the day. Out of the box thinking and identifying future needs go hand in hand.

There’s no such thing as ‘can’t do’

‘Can’t do’ is an alien concept to a real leader. Leaders get things done. They have commitment, persistence, determination and resilience. Couple all of that with creative problem-solving and you have a person things happen around.

What we mean, is that no matter what their personality, there will be a kind of buzz around them; things change when they’re around; indeed, things might even get shaken up when they’re around. It isn’t always comfortable being around leaders.

You can’t stay stuck

Along with a ‘can do’ attitude, is an ability to move things forward. When others get bogged down, good leaders know how to motivate and inspire the people around them. They are willing to take risks and stand up for what they believe. They want to get things done and bring people along with them.

Development training

Can training develop leadership skills?

In our view, you cannot ‘send’ someone on a leadership programme who doesn’t want to be there and expect them to become a leader. It’s not like the reluctant presenter who gets sent along to a course and finds out that it’s not so bad after all. If your prospective leader isn’t fully engaged in the process, sending them along to be ‘taught’ leadership skills will be a waste of time and money.

If you fall into that category, then no amount of leadership training is going to develop your skills.

However, if you have to step into a new leadership role, or there are greater expectations of how you manage people, or you’ve become a project leader, and you have a willingness to develop and take on new skills, then it’s really possible to give yourself a leadership boost. Everyone can develop their capacity to lead, from church committees to local pressure groups to business teams to political parties. When you are committed to, and practise using your leadership capabilities at all levels in your life, then you can and will develop your own potential as a leader.

Management training

We believe there is a real difference between management and leadership. You don’t need to be a leader to be able to manage other people. However, to be an outstanding manager, you do have to have some of those essential skills and qualities that are necessary in developing as a leader.

Even if you are a manager with no major aspirations of leadership, there will be people who will turn to you for leadership, whether you like it or not. Therefore, when looking for training to develop your skills, it might be a very good idea to look at leadership courses as well as management courses.

Leadership courses

There are scores of courses available calling themselves Leadership Training, Leadership Development, Leadership Skills, etc. We cannot judge just how good they are, but if you think about everything you’ve read so far and feel in synch with our sentiments, then that’s what you need to look for: courses that incorporate a clear approach to developing leadership skills.

Earlier in this document we outlined some of the things to look for in a Leadership Training Programme. Add to that list a few more essentials:

How to initiate leadership behaviours
Understanding how commitment works
Leading by example
Influencing skills
Empowering and motivating others
Thinking on your feet
Handling yours and others’ stress

In our view, really good leadership courses need to incorporate all of these elements to be truly effective. Equally important, a programme needs to be relevant to your specific leadership needs and not something off the peg.

This is why Impact Factory only delivers tailored leadership training; so that each and every course fits the organisation to a ‘T’.

In conclusion:

Expect the unusual, the quirky, the non-conformist, the doer, the inspirer and you’ve got yourself a leader. To become one or to develop your leadership skills you have to be fully engaged in the process of development and just like everyone else, you have to practise, practise, practise.

Key Learning Points:

The power of aligning personal motivation and business objectives
The capacity of strong well expressed beliefs to motivate others
Communication is far more than just words
Leadership is not just about getting people to do what you ask
It is far more about seeing what is needed and carrying people forward with your vision
Being able to create the impact you want
Expanding your spheres of influence
Being able to talk to people in terms they understand
Using appropriate language
The relevance, development and use of personal style
Putting across concepts and ideas with ease and flair
The value of creative risk-taking and “out of the box” thinking
Making sure projects move forward without having to do all the work yourself.

In Business, Leadership is about inspiring followers to achieve Team or Organizational goals. You may be a Team Leader or Manager in a Business, and you may have built the respect of your Team. Your next challenge is to get them focused in the right direction, the direction that will achieve their organizational goals.

How does a Team Leader persuade the Team to do this – to see the goals and to want to get there? How does a Leader inspire the Team? The ability to be inspirational is a key Leadership competency that can be practiced and learnt. There two critical keys to work on to provide inspirational leadership – selling the vision and persuading the Team that this is worth doing.

People want to know where they are going and why they should bother going there – what is in it for them. A poor Leader will state the targets and the objectives – figures this week, figures this month. An effective Leader can get higher figures and more committed followers by selling a positive outcome in a way that inspires.

Step 1 – Explain the Goal

Step 1 is to paint a positive picture of what exactly the end goal is. The goal must be positive, rather than negative. It should be what we will do rather than what we should avoid doing. The art of always using positive language rather than negative is essential to leadership. For example, we do not tell a Team Member what NOT to do. We tell a Team Member what to do, or ask them to suggest a good way of doing something.  The reason is simple, the negative way does not work! If the waiter puts a very hot plate down in front of you and says “Do not touch that plate, it is very hot”, what will we do? Yes, we touch it!

When we are selling the goal, we paint the picture of the positive outcome – where we are going rather than not going. ‘I want us to be the highest performing Team in the business’ – rather than ‘We can’t be in the middle of the league this year’.

Paint a very clear picture of the end goal – the follower can see it and clearly visualize it. Make it really attractive and relevant for your particular group. ‘We are going to achieve so much that every new hire will want to come on this Team’.

Step 2 – Have a Plan

Step 2 is to have a plan. How are we going to get there? You don’t have to have the whole plan – but you need step 1 and step 2 – and both of these must make sense to the Team. Identify quick wins – preferably generated from the Team itself, and present those as the first steps.

Step 3 – Sell the Goal

Step 3 is to sell it, to persuade them that it is worth doing and gain their buy-in. The language we use in effective leadership is real ‘selling’ language – all positive language and very relevant to your Team members. We state the ‘benefits’ of the end goal and the ‘benefits’ of the effort. First prepare a list of the benefits, then choose 2-3 under each heading, and then work out how to word these in a way that will come across well to your Team.

When identifying benefits,  cover 5 areas –

1. The Company – what are the benefits to the Company of us achieving this goal? What is in it for them?

2. The Customer – what are the benefits for the Customer?

3. The Team – if we achieve this goal, in what way will the Team benefit?

4. The Team Leader / Manager – how will I benefit if the Team achieves achieve this goal?

5. The Team Member – what is in it for this Team Member / each Team Member?

Paint the picture of the goal first – what it is. Next comes the benefits, in the order listed above. Then bottom line the success vision and the ‘can do’ element.

Practice this and sell it well – you will definitely be on a path to providing effective leadership and to inspiring your Team.

It is a sad fact that some leaders just seem to fail all the time. There are many leadership development programs offered to help such employees and turn them into productive leaders. So what does go wrong to such leaders? Here are some of the issues that can break even the best of leaders:
A. Practice what you preach: Some leaders forget that the very calling of their position demands for them to set examples for their subordinates. How would your subordinates have respect for your orders when you tell them not to do this or that and go ahead and do it yourself? In such a state, order cannot be found, and employees will want to get another leader for them who will be able to set the right example. When you set the right example, you pave the way for others to follow in your steps.
B. Set some standards for all to follow. You are the best person to set an example being a leader. Try and involve your subordinates when you plan the set standard rules. This will make them feel involved and honored. Once you have a standard to set, you need to ensure that these rules are followed every day and every minute. Be an example by following the rules to the T.
C. Do share your knowledge and expertise with your subordinates. You are better that is why you have been made leader over people. However, some leaders fail to give the right guidance to their juniors, out of the fear that they may get enough knowledge to become their competition. This is utterly selfish. If somebody is that good, you cant really stop them from learning something even if you try. But if some employee is not that creative, a little help from you will only be received with gratitude.
D. Care for your team. A good leader is one that can identify each employee’s potential on an individual basis, and encourage the employees to churn out the best from within. The employee may not know his own strengths and weaknesses but it is your job as leader to recognize them.
E. Leaders can sometimes lose pace with the changing times, especially if they are older than their subordinates as is often the case. Try and stay in tune with what’s in, and you will be able to connect much better with your juniors.
Follow the tips mentioned in this article, and you may well make a better leader out of yourself. If you feel the need to get into a leadership development program, then do so by all means.

It’s impossible to pinpoint every skill a leader must have to be successful. Different organizations and business require different skills and traits. However, the following 4 leadership skills are necessary in any culture. 1. Sincerity: Fake greetings, forced smiles, and feigned attention are the tools a poor leader employs daily. It’s easy to be fake–however it’s even easier to notice when someone, smiling at you with set teeth, is pretending. A good leader must always try to be sincere and earnestly believe in what she says and does. Anything less and people will begin to pick up on your lack of respect for the team and the project at hand.The only way a leader can become sincere, or work towards sincerity, is by speaking the truth and acting in accordance with his true feelings at all times. However, we live in the real world and sometimes people can’t afford, at times, to be completely forthright with their ideas and thoughts. In other words, a leader is forced to be plastic and fake on occasion. Fine. Just make sure you know when you’re doing it, why you’re doing it, and know when to turn it off. Faking understanding and listening can be easy but it will only lead to bigger problems down the road. So the next time someone asks you how you’re feeling, don’t be afraid to say, “…like hell.”2. Empathy: Face it. As a leader you wake up, get dressed, and commute to work with a unique set of problems revolving around your head. No one else on your team has your identical problems but that doesn’t mean they don’t have their own universe of difficulties and troubles. As a boss it’s hard to be pick up on the problems your staffers are having since you’re busy. However, as a leader it’s your lot to try to understand every angle.In some retail organizations corporate managers are forced to work on the sales floor for a week or two before they are allowed to sit behind their new desks. The practice is repeated throughout various organizations because it’s supposed to force managers to be empathetic towards the problems a regular staffer confronts daily. It works.A leader should know the nuts and bolts of every job that is being performed by her staffers in order to relate to its difficulty or recognize when an employee is incapable of his duties. Empathy can only come from understanding the true nature of the work and the difficulties it creates. Next time you get upset with your employee for taking his time keying in 100 pages of email addresses–ask yourself, “how long would that take me?”3. Loyalty: Leaders aren’t worth anything without their team. For that statement to make sense in reverse, leaders must be loyal to their staff.Loyalty comes in different sizes and when managers are told to be ‘loyal’ to their staff they aren’t expected to dramatically take bullets for their co-workers. Instead, leaders should protect their team from other departments and companies with vigor. Such loyalty will breed a sense of importance within the staff and compel employees to work harder for a larger good. Loyalty creates an irreplaceable bond that will, in most situations, ensure the reciprocation of loyalty.Loyalty forces, in a way, a manager to look at his team as a condensed family and the mental analogy works on many levels but it should be used with caution. Slow team members must be cut and others must be trained rigorously. Don’t force your loyalty unto a team that doesn’t yet deserve it. Loyalty doesn’t mean letting people off easy. Loyalty has to be earned and should only come after time, hard work, and patience.4. Follow Though: The act of ‘following through’ sounds easier than it really is. Everyone, at one point or another has solid ideas, plans, and goals that they want to implement professionally. The truth is only a handful of people actually follow through on their agendas. A good leader needs the ability to follow through on ideas in order to add value to her organization or team. A leader incapable of following through, continually, won’t be able to enlist support from his team or chase after bigger, more interesting, projects. Follow through is the one ability that makes leaders leaders; it’s a leaders true skill because it requires the organization of many different elements and the ability to get them all on your side in order to complete a goal. A leader who can’t follow through is a like a tennis player without a racket. It’s crucial that you are able to hit an idea home so that everyone on your team can feel a sense of accomplishment and success.However, it’s worth noting these traits are all meaningless if you don’t know your business! Good luck.

Effective Leadership is essential at any level of Management in Business. From the newly appointed Supervisor to the Senior Company Director, the core role of a Leader is surprisingly very similar. The Leader is responsible for Leading the Followers, their Team, and taking them to a predetermined destination. HOW the Leader gets the Team there, how they achieve their own and their Team’s objectives, is the complex bit – involving the effective use of lots of Leadership skills, processes, motivators and tools. The beginning is very simple – win over your Team Members.

Where many Leaders become very ineffective, and fail, is in not understanding this very first step. If I have not won over my Team Members individually, and my Team as a group, then all the later steps will not work effectively. The first set of  Leadership Skills involve winning over your Team Members, persuading people to work with you and later persuading them to go in the direction the you need them to go.

Who do People Follow?

At a very basic level, people follow people they know. If I don’t know you, I can’t trust you or respect you. Take time to BOND with each of your Team members, and build a habit of doing this with each of your Team members on an ongoing basis – not just new recruits.

Bonding is where we get to know each other. We spend a short time socialising, talking about non-work topics. It might only be 10-15minutes each week, but this is our one-to-one ‘personal time’ and it is time well spent. Here the Leader gives this Team Member their undivided attention, listening, showing interest and gaining a good understanding of how this person ticks. We are not ‘buddies’, the relationship is still Leader / Team Member. Also be careful to bond with all Team members equally – to avoid favouritism or isolating someone.

People Follow Someone they Respect

People also follow people who they can respect, and who respects them. The next step for the Leader is to spend time with each Team Member discussing their work and their performance. This is one-to-one time, but now we are talking about work rather than non-work. The Leader listens to the Team Member as he or she talks about their goals, performance, strengths, and achievements.

The Leader is showing an interest and demonstrating respect for the Team Member, praising achievements and suggesting possible next steps. The Leader is also positioning themselves in these one-to-one performance discussions as the Leader, worthy of respect. These sessions will later become coaching and mentoring sessions. But at first they are establishing the Leader – Team Member relationship.

Why do People Follow?

People follow the Leader firstly, if she is worth respecting – and secondly, if she is going somewhere I would want to go. The Follower will want to know where exactly you want me to go – what is the goal? They will also want to know why – what is in it for me if I go there? I will follow if I think this is worth doing and it is feasible – the goal and strategy to get there is doable.

This is what the Leader must satisfy in order to persuade the Team and each Team member to work with them. The best Leaders are skilled at painting that forward vision of where we are going – painting it as an attractive picture that is worth working for. To do this they must pitch the goal appropriately for this person or the Team at this point in time, using terms that would be attractive for this person.

They also persuade the Team Members WHY they should work towards this goal. What are the benefits of this goal – why it is good for the Company, good for the Customer, the Team and me, the Team member?

An important Leadership skill is the ability to deliver a motivational, goal setting talk to a Team Member or the whole Team. Both the goal and the talk is always planned and prepared carefully. The Leader’s time spent bonding with Team Members and building mutual trust and respect will be really useful here. The Leader’s personal knowledge of individuals will help ensure that the goal is appropriate, and the talk can be pitched perfectly. Equally, the personal knowledge will help the Leader AVOID saying something that would alienate or disrespect any Team Members. The benefits of the goal can be expressed using examples and language style that will appeal to this individual or the Team.

Winning over the Team and persuading them that the goal is worth following are the starting points in effective Leadership.

In today’s economy, the most important thing for any professional to focus on is increasing productivity to make the most of what you have.  Sounds easy enough, but in today’s world, professionals have to be ready to walk the walk, when they have already talked the talk.  How do we measure something that is always changing?

The first step in defining leadership is to define the characteristics of an effective leader.  Effective leaders consistently exhibit certain characteristics.  By understanding what these characteristics are, we can model these same behaviors.  Fortunately, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner’s book The Leadership Challenge has studied over a million cases of effective leaders.  As a result of their research, we now know that the top characteristics of an effective leader are honesty, competency, being forward-focused and inspiring. 

Now that we have something to measure, how do we go about measuring it?  The most popular method is through the use of inventories or surveys that ask others to rate a person in a variety of categories.  The subject does a self evaluation on how they are doing and those that work with them (supervisors, coworkers, customers or anyone else that has contact with the subject).  After all the data is compiled, we can then take a tangible look at what was once a subjective area.

One of the best examples of this type of inventory is the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) by Kouzes and Posner.  After over 25 years of research, they have composed a relatively easy way to compile an enormous amount of data in an easy to understand graph.  Once complete, the baseline for leadership skills has been set.  From that point on, it is a matter of working to improve the areas that scored the lowest on the inventory.  In order to track progress, or in some cases lack of progress, one can re-administer the LPI to get an “update” on how their leadership skills are doing.  For a video demo of the LPI go to http://www.lpionline.com/demo/demo.html.

Once armed with this powerful information, it is imperative that the results are interpreted and communicated very carefully.  The Lake Wobegon Effect (http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Lake_Wobegon_effect ) tells us that the human tendency is to overestimate one’s achievements and abilities in relation to others.  In our case, it is normal and expected for most people to expect their results to be higher than they really are.  It is highly recommended that you choose someone that is a certified facilitator to work people through this section.  Without trained facilitation, a person may end up dismissing years of proven research due to a blow to their ego.  With proper guidance, the growth of any one individual can be almost limitless.  After all, who has met someone that is the best at everything?

By following these guidelines, one can not only measure the leadership skills of an individual, but is armed with a solid development plan based on years of research.  The results include increased leadership skills in all levels, an increase in job satisfaction, employee retention and host of others.  What is stopping you from measuring your leadership skills today?

Conflicts are a part of life and they happen frequently. It takes creative leadership skills to handle conflict by communicating effectively.

Most of us are happy when everything is going along smoothly, where people are respectful of one another’s feelings. When conflicts occur all of this can change very quickly. We can feel anxious, angry or threatened, and what seems like a good thing can very quickly turn sour.

Conflict can be constructive or destructive. How we react to it depends on our past experiences with parents, peers, bosses and co-workers. Many have learned to dread conflict because their memory reminds them that in conflict they lose. For most people conflict is about winning and loosing, a process where ultimately everybody looses. But conflict can also be about winning!

Disagreements can be constructive where both parties go deep into the issues, using creative leadership skills to gain new awareness and find new solutions. Constructive conflict builds deeper relationships and trust. It takes strong leadership skills to make this happen.

When conflict arises, it is important to focus your creative leadership, acknowledge the conflict and steady yourself. Disagreements often arise from not communicating effectively, but it takes leadership skills to recognize conflict and react accordingly.

When we face conflict, our bodies frequently send out the warning signal. We get tense, our hearts start pounding, our faces become drawn, and we sometimes even break out into a cold sweat. Our speech may become stilted while our thoughts get frozen. Some want to fight while others want to flee. Neither is the best answer, but without strong leadership skills, it’s easy to lose your grip on the conflict.

Effective leaders recognize when conflict is occurring in themselves and in others; they employ their leadership skills to facilitate a harmonious solution for all concerned. They know when to speak, when to be silent and when to use their best leadership skill for this issue: dialogue.

Dialoguing is the name of this game. There are two skills that help us to manage this process so we can stick with it; handling our emotions in a way that promotes a healthy outcome.

1. Put your needs aside momentarily.

When two people are in a potential conflict, nothing will usually get accomplished unless one person concedes to ‘let the other go first’. The leader is the one who understands the relationship. Lead through your conflict by putting your own needs aside for a moment and letting the other person know they have your full attention in order for them to be heard. Know that you will get your turn soon!

2. Listen empathically.

Try to put yourself in the shoes of others and get a sense of what it would be like to experience what that person is feeling. Set your feelings aside momentarily and listen to their side of the story. Steven Covey reminds us first to ‘seek to understand’. When someone really feels heard, their need to hold rigidly to their solution is replaced with openness to new possibilities and dissonant feelings begin to unravel.

3. Disclose how the situation affects you without blaming.

This invites others to eventually return the favor and listen empathically to you as well. To disclose without blame is all about expressing how the situation feels to us. We share only our experience rather than evaluating the behavior of the other. Using a tone of voice that is non-judgmental and using open body language is key for an effective leader.

This process to resolve and handle conflicts can have miraculous results when people care enough about each other and their relationships to find a new solution to a problem. Remind yourself to communicate effectively, stick to your guns and your creative leadership skills will get you there.

In our current crazy business climate, managers and executives are becoming obsolete and are being replaced by leaders. The new manager/executive must be an expeditor and leader rather than an order giver and manager of people.
In this article, I have documented what I have found to be the leadership skills and abilities that are valued in leaders today. If you are looking to build a high performance team or company, these are the leadership traits that you and your managers should be focused on to improve personal and business performance.
1. Vision
Leaders have the ability to see things as they should become. Defining the organization’s direction, the leader defines the organization’s future.
2. Communication
Leaders are able to get others to share in their vision. They communicate in a clear and powerful way. Whether in large meetings or personal discussions, they never miss an opportunity to pass along their message.
3. Flexibility
Leaders are willing to learn. Leaders will be committed to furthering their own knowledge as well as making sure others keep up with the demand for a better educated workforce.
4. Action Oriented
Leaders know that it is not enough just to gather up the good ideas of others. When new ways of doing things can be implemented, putting them into action will fall on the shoulders of the entire team.
5. Bottom Line Thinker
Leaders know the financial conditions and limitations of the organization. Once they have the same information as senior executives, it is expected that they will reach the same decisions.
6. Builds Rapport
Leaders let the person or group know they understand their viewpoint, whether they agree or not.
7. Listening
Leaders have a mutual interest in the matter under discussion. Letting the other party speak first shows they are thought of as equals.
8. Respect
Leaders do not talk at people, they communicate with them. They treat them with respect. Do not patronize them. Leaders help them remember that they have an equal stake in finding an acceptable solution.
9. Focus
Leaders focus on the emotional issues that connect them with their followers. Leaders always stress values shared by their employees, enlisting their employees in a mission that gives their work purpose and direction.
10. Innovative
A leader can think on his or her feet. In critical situations, they have to come up with the answers, not look in textbooks.
11. High Expectations
Leaders have found, higher expectations from their workers, the better results achieved.
12. Passion
Leaders hate bureaucracy and all the nonsense that comes with it.
13. Change
Leaders stimulate and relish change. Do not become frightened or paralyzed with fear. They see change as an opportunity, not a threat.
14. Energy
Leaders have an enormous amount of energy and the ability to energize and invigorate others. They understand speed as a competitive advantage and see the total organizational benefits that can be derived from a focus on speed.
15. Support
Leaders surround themselves with competent, responsible, and supportive people.
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As a business leader, one of the most important leadership skills you’ll ever demonstrate is knowing how to communicate. When you think about it, most business leadership consists of communication of one sort or another.
You hold meetings with staff or board members or suppliers, you interview potential managers, you meet customers and shareholders, you chat in the corridor or on the phone. All of these formal and informal moments offer you the chance to influence, to enthuse and to inspire.
So how can you make the most of these moments – how can you become a truly successful communicator?
Communication involves a variety of interactions. It involves discussing, and listening, and debating. But communication also often involves a senior executive passing on some information. This may seem a fairly simple task. But it’s amazing how often business leaders don’t give enough information, or shroud it in jargon, or tell the wrong people.
HOW you pass on information can significantly affect what happens next. If you want people (whether your staff or your suppliers or customers) to act on the information, you need to make sure they understand it. And that’s not as simple as it sounds.
There are several lessons we can learn here from people whose whole business is communication. Journalists depend entirely on their words. And journalists are taught a range of tips and techniques for making their information compelling, interesting and easy to understand. Many of these techniques are just as useful for business executives, and are well worth exploring.
I’ve found that thinking about how news stories work in newspapers, for example, can help executives communicate complex messages in a simple, brief and yet memorable way, both in print and in person.
News stories are designed to grab our attention from the opening sentence. They try to tell us the news in simple, easy-to-understand language. And they don’t assume we know much about the subject already. So when you as a business executive have some information to pass on, it’s worth trying to compile it as a news story – that way, you won’t miss out anything vital.
So what makes a good a news story? In an ideal world, the opening paragraph should:
- sum up the story
- have the most important facts first
- be short and punchy and contain only essential facts
- use emotive words early on
- possibly contain an appropriate quote
- appeal to the reader in his or her area, in his or her business, or because it affects his or her pocket or way of life.
That’s a lot to fit into a few lines. So the easiest thing to do is make sure your opening paragraph answers all the questions a reader may have:
Who? What? How? Where? When? Why?
Take an example of a news story from a business newspaper:
Who? Former senior executives at X Corp
What? were arrested
How? by FBI agents
Where? in New York
When? today
Why? on suspicions of tax evasion.
This works equally well when you’re announcing something to your staff (the order in which you answer the questions can vary):
Who? I (John Doe, CEO of Y Company,)
What? want to thank
Where? all of you in our Toronto division
Why? for raising sales an impressive 5 per cent
When? in the fourth quarter
How? and invite you all to a celebration lunch next week.
In a news story, it’s important not to venture your own opinion or comment. The above item may appear to cross this line – it describes the sales increase as ‘impressive’ – but further down in the story (or in the internal memo or in the email to staff) the writer could justify the use of the word ‘impressive’ by comparing it with the target or with increases in previous quarters.
If the fundamental purpose of news is to inform, it’s essential that you allow your readers to make up their own minds on the information you provide. Do not try to sell your own opinion as fact.
To sum up, the crucial point to remember when you’re communicating information is that the most important information should appear first. If you do that, answering all the questions as suggested, there’s a good chance that you’ll get your message across and that everyone will understand it.

There are some leaders that have to lead there team into situations where they can be killed. Yet, their team follows them without question. Who are these people?

Army officers – If ever their were people who need to show the best in leadership skills its them, as it really is a question of life or death.

Let’s see what are the main leadership skills taught and which apply to civilian leadership.

1. Command Total Respect:

You don’t need to like someone you need to respect them

In the army officers don’t have favorites, everyone is treated the same, there all part of the same team.

In civilian life one of the leadership skills that is lacking is leaders who have favorites on a personal level and give them preferential treatment.

This can cause huge resentment.

Nothing undermines a leader more than office politics and back biting.

Treat everyone with the same respect and ethics.

Your staff will appreciate it and it will foster a better work ethic.

2. Hands On

In the army the officers men know that there commanding officer can either do all the tasks they can do, or at least will be very familiar with them.

Army officers are people who are seen by their men as people who are able to get their hands dirty in a team.

Many civilian leaders fail to get to grips with this concept and are seen as aloof or detached from their team.

A good leader will muck in and be seen as one of the workers at times and be seen as in the team rather than aloof from it.

3. Planning & team spirit

An army officer makes sure his men understand the mission at hand.

He knows there life depends on it.

He makes sure that everyone understands the expectations, goals and objectives.

The whole team knows exactly what’s expected of them and they will all be together and depend on each other.

A good civilian leader will have a plan in place with clear objectives where everyone knows their place in the plan and their exact role.

You need a clear plan, workable goals and a good time spirit

4. Think outside the box and ahead of the competition

One of the key points to remember is that army officers have to constantly adapt to changing situations.

They’re used to thinking ahead and thinking independently.

This is a key trait many civilian leaders lack, they don’t think far enough ahead.

They only see the near term picture and before they know it their competition has moved ahead of them.

A good leader stays one step ahead at all time and is constantly studying his competition and ways he can improve.

5. Make Tough Calls instantly

Army officers do this is a matter of course the whole safety of his group depends on it.

If you are a civilian leader you have no room to procrastinate you need to make the hard calls that ensure the survival of your business.

6. Optimism and Perseverance

Army officers will suffer setbacks but they have ultimate confidence in their team and vice versa.

“When the going gets tough the tough get going”

Army officers don’t contemplate throwing the towel in, they remain optimistic and are prepared to persevere.

They remain strong and in control and this is an essential trait of civilian leaders.

If you show you’re worried, not in control and unable to cope your teams moral will drop with disastrous consequences.

You need strength in the bad times and perseverance – All leaders have this trait and are confident they can confront and deal with anything.

Final words

An army officer acts as part of a well oiled team.

He commands respect because he can lead and his men will follow orders unquestionably because they have faith in his ability.

Acquire the traits of army officers above and maybe you to can become a great leader.